Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/353

Rh N E N E 339 methods, but were irreconcilable with Neoplatonism (the Christological dogmas) ; and the farther this process went the more unrestrainedly did theologians resign themselves to the influence of Neoplatonism on all other questions. The doctrines of the incarnation, the resurrection of the flesh, and the creation of the world in time marked the boundary line between the church s dogmatic and Neo platonism ; in every other respect, theologians and Neo- platonists drew so closely together that many of them are completely at one. In fact, there were special cases, like that of Synesius, in which a speculative reconstruction of distinctively Christian doctrines by Christian men was winked at. If a book does not happen to touch on any of the above-mentioned doctrines, it may often be doubtful whether the writer is a Christian or a Neoplatonist. In ethical precepts, in directions for right living (that is, asceticism), the two systems approximate more and more closely. But it was here that Neoplatonism finally celebrated its greatest triumph. It indoctrinated the church with all its mysticism, its mystic exercises, and even its magical cultus as taught by lamblichus. The works of the pseudo-Dionysius contain a gnosis in which, by means of the teaching of lamblichus and Proclus, the church s theology is turned into a scholastic mysticism, with directions on matters of practice and ritual. And as these writings were attributed to Dionysius, the disciple of the apostles, the scholastic mysticism which they unfold was regarded as an apostolic, not to say a divine, science. The influence exercised by these writings, first on the East, and then after the 9th (or 12th) century on the West, cannot be overestimated. It is impossible to enlarge upon it here ; suffice it to say that the mystical and pietistic devotion of our own day, even in the Protestant churches, is nourished on works whose ancestry can be traced, through a series of intermediate links, to the writings of the pseudo-Areopagite. In the ancient world there was only one .Western theologian who came directly under the influence of Neo platonism ; but that one is Augustine, the most important of them all. It was through Neoplatonism that Augustine got rid of scepticism and the last dregs of Manichseism. In the seventh book of his Confessions he has recorded how much he owed to the perusal of Neoplatonic works. On all the cardinal doctrines God, matter, the relation of God to the world, freedom, and evil Augustine retained the impress of Neoplatonism ; at the same time he is the theologian of antiquity who most clearly perceived and most fully stated wherein Neoplatonism and Christianity differ. The best ever written by any church father on this subject is to be found in chaps, ix.-xxi. of the seventh book of the Confessions. Why Neoplatonism succumbed in the conflict with Christianity is a question which the historians have never satisfactorily answered. As a rule, the problem is not even stated correctly. We have nothing to do here with our own private ideal of Christianity, but solely with catholic Christianity and catholic theology. These are the forces that conquered Neoplatonism, after assimilating nearly everything that it contained. Further, we must consider the arena in which the victory was won. The battlefield was the empire of Constantine and Theodosius. It is only when these and all other circumstances of the case are duly realized that we have a right to inquire how much the essential doctrines of Christianity contributed to the victory, and what share must be assigned to the organization of the church. In mediaeval theology and philosophy mysticism appears as the powerful opponent of rationalistic dogmatism. The empirical science of the Renaissance and the two following centuries was itself a new development of Platonism and Neoplatonism, as opposed to rationalistic dogmatism, with its contempt for experience. Magic, astrology, and alchemy all the outgrowth of Neoplatonism gave the first effectual stimulus to the observation of nature, and consequently to natural science, and in this way finally extinguished barren rationalism. Thus in the history of science Neoplatonism has played a part, and rendered services of which Plotinus or lamblichus or Proclus never dreamt. So true is it that sober history is often stranger and more capricious than all the marvels of legend and romance. Literature. The best and amplest account of Neoplatonism will be found in Zeller, Die Pkilosophie der Griechen, 3ded., 1881, iii. 2, pp. 419-865. Compare Hegel, Gesch. d. Philos., iii. 3 sq. ; Ritter, iv. pp. 571-728; Ritter and Preller, Hist. phil. Grsec. et Rom., pp. 531 sq, ; the Histories of Philosophy &amp;gt;y Schwegler, Brandis, Brucker, Thilo, Striimpell, Ueberweg (who gives the most complete survey of the literature), Erdmann, Cousin, Prantl, Lewes. See also Vacherot, Hist, de I ecole d? Alexandria, 1846-51 ; Simon, Hist, de I ecole d Alexandria, 1845; Steinhart, arts. &quot; Neuplatonismus,&quot; &quot;Plotin,&quot; &quot; Porphyrius,&quot; &quot;Proklus,&quot; in Pauly s P^alencyklop. d. klass. Alterthums ; Wagenmann, art. &quot;Neuplatonismus,&quot; in the second edition of Herzog s Realencyklop. f. protest, fheol. ; Heintze, Lehre vom Logos, 1872 ; Richter, Neuplatonische Studien ; Heigl, Der Bericht des Porphyrius ilber Origcnes, 1835 ; Redepenning, Origencs ; Dehaut, Essai historique sur la vie et la doctrine d Ammonius Saccas, 1836 ; Kirchner, Die Philosophie des Plotin, 1854 ; Steinhart, De dialectica Plotini ratione (1829), and Mcletemata Plotiniana (1840); Neander, &quot;Ueber die welthis- torische Bedeutung des 9. Buchs in der 2. Enneade des Plotinos,&quot; in the Abhandl. der Berliner Akademie, 1843 ; Yalentiner, &quot; Plotin u. s. Enneaden,&quot; in the Theol. Stud. u. Kritikcn, 1864. For the biography of Plotinus, see Porphyry, Eunapius, Suidas, the last two in particular for the later Neoplatonists as well. On Porphyry see Fabricius, Bibl. Gr., v. p. 725 sq. ; Wolff, Porph. de philosophia ex oraculis liaurienda librorum rcliquise, 1856 ; Miiller, Fragmenta hist. Gr. , iii. 688 sq. ; Mai, Ep^ ad Marcellam, 1816 ; Bernays, Theo}&amp;gt;hrast, 1866 ; Wagenmann in the Jahr- biicherf. deutsche Theol., vol. xxiii., 1878; Richter in the Ztschr. f. Philos., vol. Iii., 1867; Hebenstreit, De lamblichi doctrina, 1764 ; Harless, Das Buch von den agyptischen Mystcrien, 1858 ; and Meiners, Comment. Societ. Gotting., iv. p. 50 sq. On Julian, see a catalogue of the copious literature in the Ecalencyklop. f. protest. Theol., 2d ed., vol. vii. p. 287 ; Neumann, Juliani libr. c. Christ, quse supcrsunt, 1880; Hoche, &quot;Hypatia,&quot; in Philologus, vol. xv., 1860; Bach, De Syriano philosoplio, 1862. On Proclus, see the biography of Marinus, and Freudenthal in Hermes, vol. xvi. p. 214 sq. On Boetius, compare Nitzsch, Das System des Boethius, 1860 ; and Usener, Anecdoton Holderi, 1877. On the relation of Neoplatonism to Christianity, and the histori cal importance of Neoplatonism generally, see the Church Histories of Mosheim, Gieseler, Neander, Baur; and the Histories of Dogma by Baur and Nitzsch. Compare also Lofner, Der Platonismus der Kirchenvater, 1782 ; Huber, Die Philosophie der Kirchenvater, 1859 ; Tzchirner, Fall des Heidenthums, 1829 ; Burckhardt, Die Zeit Constantin s des Grosscn, 1853 ; Chastel, Hist, de la destruc tion du Paganisme dans V empire d Orient, 1850 ; Beugnot, Hist, de la destruction du Paganisme en Occident, 1835 ; E. von Lasaulx, Der Untergang des Hellenismus, 1854 ; Vogt, Neuplatonismus und Christenthum, 1836 ; Ullmann, &quot; Einfluss des Christenthums auf Porphyrius,&quot; in the Stud. u. Kritiken, 1832. On the relation of Neoplatonism to Monachism, compare Keim, Aus dem Urchristen- thum, 1878. See further the monographs on Origen, the later Alexandrians, the three Cappadocians, Theodoret, Synesius, Marius Victorinus, Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus, Scotus Erigena, and the medieeval mystics. Specially noteworthy are Jahn, Basilius Plotinizans, 1838 ; Dorner, Augustimis, 1875 ; Bestmann, Qua ratione Augustinus notiones philos. Graecas adhibuerit, 1877; Loesche, Augustinus Plotinizans, 1881; Volkmann, Syncsios, 1869. On the after-effects of Neoplatonism on the church s dogmatic, see Ritschl, Theologie und Metaphysik, 1881. (A. HA.) NEOPTOLEMUS was the son of Achilles and Deidamia, one of the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros, at whose court Achilles was concealed by his mother in female attire to keep him away from the Trojan War. He was brought to Troy in the last year of the war by Ulysses, whom he helped in persuading Philoctetes to come from Lemnos to aid the Greeks, and he was one of the warriors in the wooden horse. It was he who killed Priam during the sack of the city. Apart from these Trojan tales, Neoptolemus is a prominent figure in the