The Renaissance is Coming! The Renaissance is Coming!
The key players of the Middle Ages were Plato, Plotinus (through the Pseudo-Dionysius), and Thomas Aquinas.
• Plato (c.429-347bc) The Influence of Plato was felt more toward the beginning of the Middle Ages, depending on where you decide to start them. Most scholars point to around the late 400s to the 1400s as being the Middle Ages, though the dawn of the new era varied with a particular country. Since the term "Neoplatonism" was not coined until the 18th century, up until then there was no real distinction considered between the variant represented in Plotinus and that of Plato himself, but Plotinus added so many elements that were not in Plato's ideas, strictly speaking, that scholars today do draw a line between the two. So particularly in the Early Middle Ages, Plato held great sway. The Byzantine era shows marked similarities with Egyptian artwork, which was Plato's favorite, as mentioned by him, and also brought heavy elements of Roman art and it's love of mosaics.
• The Pseudo-Dionysius (late 5th-early 6th century ad) The anonymous Greek scholar who wrote under the pseudonym of "Dionysius" arrived on the scene around 500ad, and radically changed the ideas held dear in the Church of that time. These manuscripts took the Neoplatonism of Proclus and translated them into terms friendly to Christians. They were extremely mystical in outlook, and took the Hindu mysticism alluded to by Plato and used it to build a framework encompassing all the universe, both spiritual and physical. The Return, or the Journey Upward as it was known, was central to these ideas, and was the duty of every disciple with hopes of uniting with God in henosis, or "oneness." All the universe was part of the essence of the One, or God, and thus more spiritual in inclination that physical. Not to participate in the Return was Plotinus' only reference to evil, since all things were part of the eternal cycle of emanation (overflow of the One's essence) and return to Oneness. The fusing of these ideas with Christianity took the Church in directions that are still found in the Greek Orthodox church, using icons as the first step of reverence and meditation to attain higher spiritual planes. In the eyes of the Greek Orthodox, these images are filled with the spiritual essence of those whom they represent, so reverencing them is not worshipping an image, but rather the spiritual essence within the images. Ultimately, it was this aspect of the images that caused the Reformers to reject them.
• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) The ideas of Neoplatonism reigned for almost 1000 years, but the seeds of the Renaissance were planted when the manuscripts of Aristotle were brought back by the Crusaders in the early 11th century. By 100 years later, the Aristotelian movement was so strong as to produce the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas. He so injected the naturalism of Aristotle into church thinking that by shortly after the Reform which began in 1517, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) radically shifted the Roman Catholic view of the use of art. Their Aristotelian outlook turned away from the mystical use of icons (though officially they still urged reverence of true icons), and began to purchase artwork that would teach, inspire, and create devotion with realistic artwork. To produce such realism, it was necessary to study nature not just for symbolic inspiration but for mimicry and veritas, or true likeness. This shift which brought the ideas of Aristotle to the fore resulted in a near deathblow for Neoplatonism.
• Down But Not Out While Aristotle reigned from the 1400s-the 1800s, from 1600 forward his grip on Western culture weakened, as did the hold of Christianity. Deism began to rise in the 1600s, as did the ideas of Democritus. However, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Neoplatonism has seen a remarkable return in the last 100 years, particularly the last 50 years. France seems to have been the epicenter of the reclamation, and since St. Denis, (or Dionysius) is the patron saint of France I suppose it's fitting. In some respects I see the return of Neoplatonic ideas as a desire to hold ground in stark opposition to the atheist/atomist materialism of today's culture (thanks to Democritus), and proclaiming that the spiritual inhabits all of the material realm certainly does just that. Unfortunately, Dionysian Neoplatonism is not even close to being true to Scripture.
