Mysticism

At the turn of the third century CE, when the philosophical schools of Antiquity seemed to have exhausted their possibilities, a thinker born in Roman Egypt undertook the most ambitious metaphysical synthesis the ancient world had ever seen. Plotinus (c. 205–270 CE) did more than comment on Plato: he transformed Platonism into a complete ontological architecture centered on the idea that all of reality emanates from an absolute principle — the One — and that the destiny of the human soul is to return to that primordial unity. ...

Bonaventure Giovanni di Fidanza, known as Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. Franciscan theologian and philosopher; cardinal and Minister-General of the Franciscan Order. Contemporary and cordial adversary of Thomas Aquinas. Called the Doctor Seraphicus. Key Concepts Itinerary of the Mind to God (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, 1259): the soul ascends to God in six steps — from the external world (vestiges of God in creation) to the interior (soul as image of God) to the superior (contemplation of God in itself); divine illumination is necessary at each stage Divine illumination: human knowledge requires a special light infused by God — inheritance from Augustine against the pure Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas Exemplarism: creatures are vestiges (vestigia), images (imagines) or similitudes (similitudines) of God — the world is a book that speaks of God Theology as affective wisdom: theology is not theoretical science but sapientia — knowledge that moves toward love; contemplation surpasses speculation Creation in time: against Aristotle and Averroes, the world is not eternal — it was created from nothing (ex nihilo) Influenced by Augustine — illuminism, interiority and love Plato (via Augustine) — exemplarism and participation Anselm of Canterbury — ontological argument and faith seeking understanding Francis of Assisi — Franciscan spirituality Influenced Later Franciscan school (Duns Scotus, Ockham — though divergent) Western Christian mysticism Thomas Aquinas — debate on the eternity of the world Works Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (1248–1255); Itinerary of the Mind to God (1259); Reduction of the Arts to Theology (1255); The Triple Way (c. 1259). ...

Plotinus Born around 205 CE, probably in Roman Egypt, Plotinus studied for years in Alexandria under the enigmatic master Ammonius Saccas and later settled in Rome, where he founded a school and led a life of remarkable asceticism. His lessons were gathered and organized by his disciple Porphyry in the Enneads. He is the founder of Neoplatonism and the greatest philosopher of late antiquity, making Plato the starting point of one of the most grandiose metaphysics ever conceived. ...

Simone Weil French philosopher, mystic, and activist. A student of Alain (Émile Chartier) at the École Normale Supérieure, she worked alongside factory laborers and fought in the Spanish Civil War. Her work, almost entirely posthumous, crosses philosophy, Christian mysticism (without formal adherence to the Church), social critique, and reflection on labor. She died at 34 in London, weakened by tuberculosis and her refusal to eat more than those rationed in occupied France. An unclassifiable thinker who fascinated Camus, who edited her first published books. ...