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Platonic Theology, Volume 1: Books I-IV (I Tatti Renaissance Library)

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The Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino, who was renowned for his Latin translations of all Plato's dialogues, set out to prove that the tenets of Platonism, instead of Aristotelianism, were fundamentally compatible with Christianity. He attempted this not only by acting as the primary mover of the Florentine academy, but also through his magnanimous patron Cosimo de' Medici who apportioned Ficino the leisure to commence his monumental work, "The Platonic Theology," which is offered here for the first time in a long-awaited English translation. Marsilio Ficino's work--from what may be seen from the first of five anticipated volumes--is an artful, straightforward representation of the divine philosophy of Plato, magnificently garbed under a brilliant and definitive medieval synthesis. Of the work itself Ficino says, "the Platonic mysteries are set forth as clearly as possible...so that...we may reveal the Platonic teaching, which is in complete accord with the divine law." Like all Christian-Platonists, Ficino used Augustine as a model for his orthodox amalgamation of the teachings of Plato and Christ, and believed so strongly in it that he said, "the Platonic teaching...is related to the divine law of both Moses and Christ as the moon is to the sun." With this in mind, it may be said that the vision of Marsilio Ficino, so clearly manifested in this work, will come as a relief to anyone ardently devoted to the school of Plato and the religion of Christ. The translated works of Ficino are certainly a great benefit to those confined to the English speaking world, and the other up-and-coming volumes in new I Tatti Renaissance Library (Harvard) are likely to produce the same effects. The value of these newly translated masterpieces of western culture cannot be described.

Marselo Ficino was one of the leading scholars in Renaissance Italy. Charged by the famous and powerful Medici family with recovering classical literature and philosophy, Ficino played a critical role in translating such works as the Hermetic Corpus and the works of Plotinus and Plato.

Ficino's Platonic Theology is a Renaissance restatement of the metaphysical system of Neo-Platonism, particularly that found in Proclus's Platonic Theology. The core of the system is the First Principle, the One, which while itself is immutable, eternal, and timeless, produces the universe through a chain of being through which it transmits its goodness and being, from the highest level of reality to the lowest, which then returns back to the One in an processing cycle.

Ficino made some accomodations to Christian belief and theology so his system would not raise the ire of the religious authorities, though he also had considerable freedom from ecclesiastical control.

This work is of interest to any philosopher interested in Neo-Platonic idealism and how it has influenced the shape of modern thought.

Useful to the scholar. Thought provoking as intellectual work. Life changing in world view. There is an alternative to secularism or post-modernism.