Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

László Perendy: A Christian Platonist

A CHRISTIAN PLATONIST

191

Calvenus Taurus, who was the head of the Academy probably until about 170 AD, did not accept the doctrine of Plutarch about the temporal creation of the world. In his opinion Plato's description of the activities of the Demiurge serves not only didactic purposes, but also contributes to piety, because otherwise people would think that the soul is coeval with God. He distinguishes four meanings of yeviyrós, usually translated 'created', but rather meaning 'subject to coming into being'. The fourth meaning is not connected with a temporal beginning. It is used in the sense that something is dependent for its existence on an outside source, e.g. in the case of the cosmos on God. Although Calvenus admired Plutarch's teaching on ethics, he was not attracted by Plutarch's dualism. He regards the universe as good, which we have to use for noble purposes. In his opinion, who live nobly can become divine.53

Atticus was the leader of Platonism at Athens after Taurus. Probably he was not the head of the Academy itself, but may have been the first to have the chair of Platonic philosophy founded by Marcus Aurelius in 176. Some scholars think that he may have been nominated to this post by Herodes Atticus himself. He attacked the Peripatetics vigorously and accused them of banishing God from active intervention in the world. Atticus presupposed a stage before creation, similarly to Plutarch. In his commentary on the Timaeus he asserts that the universe was in disorderly motion before the creation of the cosmos. If there was motion, there was time as well before creation proper, and this kind of time did not have a beginning. The maleficent soul in his system becomes a kind of lower world soul. The World Soul itself takes over the active role of the Demiurge of the Timaeus, while the Demiurge is identified with the

D. BÁBUT, Plutarque et le Stoïcisme, Paris, 1969.

R. H. BARROW, Plutarch and his Times, London, 1967.

H. DÖRRIE, Le platonisme de Plutarque, in Actes du Ville Congrès de l'Association Guillaume Budé, Paris, 1969, 519-530.

P. THÉVENAZ, L ’âme du monde. Le devenir et la matière chez Plutarque, Paris, 1938.

J. WHITTAKER, Plutarch, Platonism and Christianity, in H. E. BLUMENTHAL - R. A. MARKUS (eds.), Neoplatonism and Early Christian Thought. Essays in Honour of A. H. Armstrong, London, 1981, 50-63.

53 Ibid. 242-246.