Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
László Perendy: A Christian Platonist
190 L. PERENDY Plutarch of Chaeroneia, who died about 125 AD, used the same attributes of God which the other Platonists did: he is the Good and he is One. But Plutarch's system is basically dualistic. His indefinite Dyad is not simply Matter. It is not just the negative principle of the Timaeus, but a Maleficent Soul that broke away form the intelligible realm. It is responsible for the irrational motion in the sublunar world. Plutarch praises Zoroastrian theology and his views are not far from Gnosticism, either. This Maleficent Soul created a dim préfiguration of the world before God himself created the cosmos. Isis is identified with the Receptacle of the Timaeus, but also with Matter and with Wisdom. This complex entity is imperfect, but longs for completion by the Logos of God. There is a constant cosmic tension between this rather mythical figure and the Rational Soul. In opposition to Xenocrates and Crantor, Plutarch says that the creation of the ordered soul, i.e. the creation of the world took place at a certain point of time. He distinguishes between a powerless Matter without qualities and a positive disorderly element which desires order. Strictly speaking it is not evil in itself, nevertheless it does cause evil. This Indefinite Dyad is sometimes called Ahriman.51 Plutarch has a rather elaborate demonology and tries to describe the coordination of the psychic and bodily motions using Pythagoreanizing imagery.52 ID, Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato, Leiden, 1986. W. THEILER, Philo von Alexandria und der hellenisierte Timaeus, in C. ZINTZEN (ed.), Der Mittelplatonismus, Darmstadt, 1981, 52-63. H. A. WOLFSON, Philo. Foundations of religious philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Cambridge/Mass, 1948. ID., Philo Judaeus, in H. A. WOLFSON - I. TWERSKY (ed.) - G. H. WILLIAMS (ed.), Studies in the History of Philosophy of Religion 1, Cam- bridge/Mass, 1973, 60-70. ID., The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, Cambridge/Mass, 1976. 51 For the religious background of this doctrine see: J. BIDEZ - F. CUMONT, Les mages hellénisés. Zoroastre, Ostanès et Hystaspe d’après la tradition grecque, Paris, 1973. J. DUCF1ESNE-GUILLEMIN, Ormazd et Ahriman, l'aventure dualiste dans l'antiquité, Paris, 1953. G. MURRAY, Five Stages of Greek Religion, London, 1976. 52 J. DILLON, o. c. 199-223. For further information on Plutarch, see the following works:
