Plato on God

Abstract

Abstract Introduction This lecture continues the cosmological-theological theme of Orr. 2 and 5-10; the thematic connections with 8-9 (the cosmic hierarchy) and 10 (the human soul’s ascent to knowledge of transcendent realities) are particularly close. The core of the lecture (§§ 7-12) is an exposition of the (Middle) Platonic doctrine of God as supreme, transcendent Intellect and the incorporeal source of all Beauty, combined with an exhortation to the listener-reader to cultivate such awareness of his nature as he can. This is preceded in §§ 1-6 by an elaborate prologue, in which Maximus establishes first the propriety of consulting expositions of Platonic doctrine, rather than simply referring back to the works of the Master himself, and then—as propaedeutic to specifically Platonic theology— the universality of belief in a supreme and unitary God of some kind or another. Considerable care is taken to ensure overall symmetry and thematic coherence between and within the two main divisions of the lecture. The whole is framed by references to God and his subordinate daimones; the prologue by images for Plato’s pre-eminence as a source of enlightenment (sun, goldmine, oracular spokesman). Moreover, the relationship depicted in §§ 7-12, between God the source and the beauty and order of the physical world deriving from him, parallels that implied in § 1 to hold between Plato and his (inferior, derivative) interpreters.