A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

224 A Source Book for Ancient Church History[202]events which was already indicated by the mystical meaning theScripture interwove in the history the account of some event thatdid not take place, sometimes what could not have happened;sometimes what could, but did not happen.… And at other timesimpossibilities are recorded for the sake of the more skilful andinquisitive, in order that they may give themselves to the toil ofinvestigation of what is written, and thus attain to a becomingconviction of the manner in which a meaning worthy of Godmust be sought out in such subjects.§ 44. Neo-PlatonismThe last phase of Hellenic philosophy was religious. It aimedto combine the principles of many schools of the earlier periodand to present a metaphysical system that would at once givea theory of being and also furnish a philosophical basis for thenew religious life. This final philosophy of the antique worldwas Neo-Platonism. It was thoroughly eclectic in its treatmentof earlier systems, but under Plotinus attained no small degree ofconsistency. The emphasis was laid especially upon the religiousproblems, and in the system it may be fairly said that the religiousaspirations of heathenism found their highest and purest expression.Because it was in close touch with current culture and inits metaphysical principles was closely akin to the philosophy ofthe Church teachers, we find Neo-Platonism sometimes a bitterrival of Christianity, at other times a preparation for the Christianfaith, as in the case of Augustine and Victorinus.Additional source material: Select Works of Plotinus, translatedby Thomas Taylor, ed. G. R. S. Mead, London, 1909(contains bibliography of other translations of Plotinus, includingthose in French and German together with a selectlist of works bearing on Neo-Platonism); Select Works ofPorphyry, trans. by Thomas Taylor, London, 1823; Taylor