Silliman's Papers

Addendum II: A timeline of Christian neoplatonism

193 –
Ammonius Saccas, an Alexandrian dockworker who was called “God-taught” and who left no writings, becomes the first neoplatonist and the teacher of Plotinus, and probably Clement and Origen.

233 –
Plotinus comes to Alexandria, studies at the feet of Ammonius Saccas.

245 to 271 –
Plotinus, teaching in Rome, writes the treatises of the Enneads, which are later collected and edited by his student Porphyry.

384 –
St. Augustine begins to read Plotinus and rejects Manicheanism for neoplatonism, admiring its solution of immateriality to the problem of evil.

386 –
Told of the conversion of the neoplatonist Victorinus, St. Augustine begins an intense moral struggle that ends with his reading of St. Paul and his move to Christianity.

4__ –
An anonymous theologian, writing under the assumed named of Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert and disciple of St. Paul, synthesizes neoplatonism and Christianity. He was almost universally believed to be the Dionysius mention in Acts until the Reformation. Scholars now call him “Pseudo-Dionysius.”

580 –
Joseph Huzaja, a Syrian monk, appeals to Psuedo-Dionysius in defense of Nestorianism.

590 to 604 –
Pope St. Gregory the Great, in a homily on Luke 25.1-10, called Pseudo-Dionysius an “ancient and venerable Father.”

634 –
Sophronius, a monk of the Theodosius monastery near Jerusalem, is made Patriarch of Jerusalem and writes a lengthy exposition of the doctrine of the two energies of Christ, citing Pseudo-Dionysius as a man through whom God speaks.

649 –
The Lateran Council cites Psuedo-Dionysius against Monothelism.

649 to 655 –
Pope St. Martin I quotes Pseudo-Dionysius and calls him “Dionysius of beautiful memory.”

680 –
Pope Agatho cites Psuedo-Dionysius in a dogmatic epistle to Emporer Constantine. The Council of Constantinople rules against the Monothelite interpretation of Psuedo-Dionysius.

787 –
The second Council of Nicea cites Psuedo-Dionysius’ “Celestial Hierarchy” against the Iconoclasts, formulates a creed using the neoplatoinc language of “procession” to refer to the relationship of the persons of the Trinity.

858 –
Eriugena translates Psuedo-Dionysius into Latin.

867 –
Eriugena finishes On the Divisions of Nature, which is strongly shaped by Pseudo-Dionsius, and other Christian neoplatonists. Eriugena is believed to have little or no contact with the pagan neoplatonists.

900 –
The relics of Pseudo-Dionysius are believed to be in the possession of Saint Denis in Paris, later decided to be those of the Gallic martyr Dionysius.

1121 –
Abelard establishes that the relics of St. Dionysius are those of a Gallic martyr and not the neoplatonic writer.

1225 –
Pope Honoris III condemns Eriugena’s On the Divisions of Nature as “a book teeming with the worms of heretical depravity,” and orders all copies burned.

14__ –
Scholar Laurentius Valla expresses doubts about the identification of Pseudo-Dionysius with the New Testament convert, opening up a Reformation-era debate on the identity and veracity of Pseudo-Dionysius.

1585 –
On the Divisions of Nature is banned by Pope Gregory XIII

1600 to 1700 –
With the rise of science and materialism, Christian neoplatonism ceases to have a strong influence over theology or philosophy.

1895 –
Two simultaneous independent studies, by Hugo Koch and Joseph Stiglmayr, conclude Psuedo-Dionysius was a 5th century writer and not the Pauline convert mentioned in Acts.