Customer Reviews

Culture and Philosphy in the Age of Plotinus (Classical Literature and Society)

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Mark Edwards is a university lecturer in Patristics at Oxford and I am very keen on his writing style and topics. I would recommend his books to anyone interested in Greek philosophy or Christianity or both. He offers extremely sharp insight into the early Christian Church and the often misunderstood relationship between Christianity and philosophy. Plotinus was a Neoplatonist philosopher writing around 200 AD who found himself in the early days of the battleground that developed in the Roman Empire between the old pagan traditions and the emerging Christian beliefs. Plotinus perhaps deliberately does not expend much effort on Christian beliefs but his work served to inspire one of the great Christian theologians, Augustine of Hippo. I recently completed my MA dissertation on the relationship between Plotinus' Neoplatonism and Augustine's Christianity and this book along with Edwards' Origen against Plato were invaluable. Edwards states that Augustine saw Neoplatonism as a `Christless Christianity' which should indicate the high esteem in which Augustine viewed the work of Plotinus. This is not a book that solely examines this relationship and focuses on the philosophy that was being taught at this time including the original works of Plato along with Plotinus, Porphyry and Iamblichus. A great read and please follow this up with Edwards' Origen against Plato!