Plotinus (c. 205-270ad)
The Return to the One is the Duty of All
Plotinus became the main source of philosophical influence for the Roman and Greek churches through manuscripts discovered around 500ad. Signed by a "Dionysius," they were taken to have been written by the disciple of Paul found in Acts 17:34. They reasoned that if Dionysius was the disciple of Paul, he must have gotten his ideas directly from the Apostle who wrote most of the New Testament, and should be seen as important as Scripture itself.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Modern scholars have found that much of what this "Dionysius" wrote was lifted from the writings of Proclus, a follower of Plotinus who died in 480ad, only a few years before they were discovered, not around 60ad as thought. Please take the time to use the menu to find an article on Dionysius to read further on him.
Plotinus was a lover of both Plato and Aristotle and wanted to reconcile the seeming differences between the two. He felt that differences were exaggerated and if one only looked hard enough, unity could be found between the two. In order to do so, Plotinus turned to Eastern mysticism to explain how things worked, and in fact while trying to unify the two disparate ideas he created an entirely new form of philosophy. It wasn't until the late 18th century that the term "Neoplatonism" was coined, and until then most followers thought of it as just an explanation of Plato's ideas, but it's clearly different enough to warrant a new term.
His ideas were extremely mystical, and he saw the material universe just and extension of the spiritual realm, and the differences between spiritual and material were merely a difference in the journey of Emanation and Return. He felt matter was actually spiritual in essence, part of the One, which was his supreme being. The One was complete unity spiritually embodied until an overflow, or "emanation," caused the level of the Intellect and Forms to be separated. A second surge caused the realm of soul, or feelings, to be separated from the Forms and yet a third resulted in the material realm. All of this was still part of the essence of the One—even the material realm. All of these phases were "hypostases" and were not sequential as we might think of them, but were eternal states of Emanation and Return.
In order to perform the duty of the Return (not to strive for a Return was evil), one must follow the order of emanation in reverse—starting with the material realm, moving to the realm of soul, or feelings, then to the realm of Intellect, and then a leap into the unity of the One. This is true for disciples, and was part of a "journey upward."
The Church of the Middle Ages found these ideas to be fascinating, and when the manuscripts of the false-Dionysius canonized them as "Christian," they became the near universal belief system endorsed by the Church catholic. The problem was that these were not even remotely Scriptural, and were based more on Hindu thought than Scripture. Plato had endorsed the Hindu idea of reincarnation, and Plotinus brought in quite a bit more of their mystical ideas. The idea of eternal motion may sound a bit like Aristotle's motion from the Prime Mover, but the mystical basis of Neoplatonic thought predominates. Dionysian Neoplatonism held sway in the Church for almost 1000 years, and resulted in the veneration of saints, the reverence of icons, the mystical meditations and many practices which did not change until Aristotle was brought to the fore by a newly elected Pope in the Counter-Reformation's Council of Trent (1545-1563), starting some 30 years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door in Wittenberg.
The philosophies of men are quite dangerous if they are used to aid in the interpretation of Scripture, and we will see that this has happened over and over throughout the history of the Church.
