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Spirit and Soul: *
SOUL
Avicenna’s works had great impact on later Muslim thinkers; he argued for an independent, self-conscious, substantial & immortal soul. He adopted Plato and not rather Aristotle in positing the essential separation of body and soul. He opens his chapter on the soul asserting a separate existence & uses his famous thought experiment “Floating Man to illustrate that the soul exists even in total isolation from any physical or sensory experience. Thus the soul is an independent intelligent substance, both prior to involvement with the world, and afterwards, when the body perishes. He concludes that the soul must be related to the body, but in the case of man it is an extrinsic mover and is not “mixed with it. Every soul is a substance and not an accident; it is distinct from the body and gives it its consistence and existence.
SPIRIT
Avicenna also tells us that the soul acts through the intermediary of the heart, the heart regulates the sensitive & vegetative powers, through the intermediaries of physical “spirits”. He postulated an “animal spirit” which serves as the soul’s intermediary in giving life to the body, while the “psychic spirit” in the brain serves as an intermediary for sensation & the movement. There are 3 spirits: a vegetative one in the liver, an animal one in the heart & a psychic one in the brain. There are also 3 corresponding souls which are the forms of these spirits. However, only the rational soul is immortal.
The Intellect which is the first creation and which directs all creation which follows, is sometimes called “the universal spirit” or Agent Intellect. This spirit fills the universe by its operation without being mixed with it, but only watching over it by its providence. This spirit goes by many names: the Divine Infusion ( Greek Neo-Platonists), “the Word” (Early Christians), Holy Spirit (Jewish Christians) the good spirits (Manichaean) and the Angles (the Arabs)
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Democritus (his physics): *
As an atomist he believed everything is composed of "atoms" physically, but not geometrically, indivisible. They are inert solids (excluding other bodies from its volume) that interact with other atoms mechanically. He (along with Leucippus & Epicurus) suggested that atoms had distinctive shape, size & arrangements. The solidness of the material corresponded to the shape of the atom; he used analogies from sense experiences (iron atoms are solid & strong with hooks that lock them into a solid, but water atoms are smooth & slippery). Connections were explained by material links (hooks & eyes, balls & sockets). Atoms are indestructible, have always been & will always be in motion. There is an infinite number of atoms & of kinds of atoms. Between the atoms, there lies empty space. This void hypothesis was a response to the paradoxes of Parmenides & Zeno. The atomists agreed that motion required a void & as motion exists, there must be a void. His cosmology also embraced atoms. The universe was composed of nothing but tiny atoms churning in chaos, until they collided together to form larger units, including the earth & everything on it. He believed there were many worlds, some growing, some decaying; some with no sun or moon, some with several. All have a beginning & an end.
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the Early Fathers (writings of): *
It is among the Greek Fathers that we see the strongest influence of the Gnostics.
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) early Christian apologist, and foremost interpreter of the theory of the Logos in the 2nd century; martyred, alongside some of his students.
Irenaeus (130-202 AD) bishop of Lyons in Gaul; early Christian apologist & disciple of Polycarp, his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology. His main work, was Against Heresies (180). He wrote that Christians needed to accept one doctrinal authority to maintain unity & proposed that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John be accepted as canonical.
Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD), a distinguished teachers of the Church, united Greek philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine; he valued “gnosis”; he developed a Christian Platonism. Like Origen, he came from the Catechetical School of Alexandria & was well versed in pagan literature.
Origen (185-254), scholar & theologian, an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School where Clement had taught. He wrote extensively. Using his knowledge of Hebrew, he produced a corrected Septuagint; wrote commentaries on all the books of the Bible; in his First Principles, he articulated the first philosophical exposition of Christian doctrine; he interpreted scripture allegorically & reflected Stoic, Neo-Pythagorean & Platonist beliefs. Like Plotinus, he wrote that the soul passes through successive stages before incarnation as a human & after death, eventually reaching God. God was not Yahweh but the First Principle & Christ, as the Logos, was subordinate to him. In the 6th century his views were declared anathema.
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Imperium Romanum (religiosity): *
The Roman Empire expanded to include different peoples & cultures; in principle, Rome followed an inclusionist policy. Rome had their own Imperial cult which identified emperors with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State. Eastern imports however loom large, chief among them is Christianity. The Jews brought Christianity to Rome as the first Christians were Jewish Christians. For at least a century before 27 BC Judaism were tolerated in Rome by diplomatic treaty with Judaea's Hellenised elite. Diaspora Jews had much in common with the Hellenic communities that surrounded them. When Judaea's became a client kingdom in 63 BC the Jewish diaspora increased. Christianity emerged as a sect of Judaism in Roman Palestine. A variety of Christian cults developed throughout the 2nd & 3rd century, in Alexandria, Antioch, Palestine & Rome. In Roman eyes early Christianity was irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic, a sub-sect of Judaism. In fact it was only 1 of many movements. During this period (the Participate) we see the formation & evolution of the Early Church as well as Rabbinic Judaism.
It was an age of dynamic experimentation & spirituality with many syncretic sects & movements, such as Gnosticism , Neo-Platonism and the Chaldaean oracles. The latter date from the 2nd century AD & are attributed to Julian the Theurgist and his father, Julian the Chaldean. The novel sect hermeticism emerged; this sect was based on The Hermetica, Egyptian-Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd century or earlier. They discuss the divine, the cosmos, mind, and nature. Some touch upon alchemy, astrology, and related concepts.
There was a wave of intellectual religious among the intelligentsia in the early 2nd century AD. The roots of Neo-Platonism lay in the East. In the 2nd century, Numenius of Apamea (Syria) worked to fuse Platonism into Neo-Pythagoreanism, a direction Plotinus (from the delta region of Egypt) continued with Neo-Platonism, a religion of theistic monism. It was adopted by scholars (Origen, Porphyry) & even the imperial family under Emperor Gallienus (260-268 AD).
The masses however were attracted to different cults. In the 1st century, the Roman military began to adopt the mystery cult of Mithraism. The spread & movement of the legions spread Mithraism throughout the Empire & frontier areas; initially followed by soldiers, later it was adopted by freedmen, slaves & merchants. It became popular in Rome itself, gaining adherents among the aristocracy including Roman senators & possibly Emperor Commodus(180-192 AD). By the 3rd century it had a wide following. From the reign of Septimius Severus (193-211 AD), other, less gender-specific, forms of sun-worship also increased in popularity throughout the Roman Empire.
A blatant eastern incursion occurred under Emperor Elagabalus (218-222 AD). He was a High Priest of the Elagabal temple at Emesa, Roman Syria. The deity “Elagabal” was rooted in Syria & known in Rome as El-Gabal. The Emperor installed El-Gabal as the chief deity of the Roman pantheon, merging it with the Roman sun gods, forming Deus Sol Invictus (God - the Undefeated Sun), superior even to Jupiter. Lavish annual public festivals held in El-Gabal's honour found favour among the popular masses & in the 2nd & 3rd centuries the cult spread across the Empire. Aurelian (270-275 AD) worked to make the sun-god the main divinity of the Roman pantheon. He built a new temple, in Rome, dedicated to the deity & established the festival of the birth of the unconquered sun (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, on 25 December).
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Substance (soul structure): *
For Aristotle, "substance" was a particular specific thing such as an apple. The apple has form (we would call it properties) & matter. It is when these 2 things come together that we have a specific substance. Aristotle applies his theory (hylomorphism) to living things. He defines a soul as that which makes a living thing alive. Life is a property of living things (like knowledge). Therefore, a soul is a form, a specifying principle of a living thing. A soul is related to its body as form is to matter. Just as a candle consists of wax (matter) with a certain shape (form), so a living organism consists of a body with is its soul, giving it the property of life. The soul permeates the body.
In contrast we have the Neo-Platonist view of Soul & substance. For the Neo-Platonists, above the surface phenomena (what we see or hear) are 3 higher spiritual principles, each one more sublime than the preceding. For Plotinus, these are the "the One", then the Divine Mind or Logos, & finally the World-Soul, from which each individual soul emerges. Substance is the Logos and then the World Soul. He also speaks of “emanation”, the flowing out or issue, as from a source. For the Neo-Platonists, the One initially emanates the Divine Mind, and from the Divine Mind is emanated the World Soul. Thus from the One rains down the substance of our Soul
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portraits (of Constantinian age): *
The great head is carved in a typical, abstract, Constantinian style (“hieratic or priestly emperor style”) of late Roman portrait statues. The body parts are naturalistic (callused toes, bulging forearm veins). The head conveys the transcendence of the other-worldly nature of the Emperor over the human sphere, notable in its larger-than-life eyes which gaze toward eternity from a rigidly impersonal, frontal face. This treatment is a synthesis of individualistic portraiture: aquiline nose, deep jaw & prominent chin characteristic of all images of Constantine, combined with trends in Late Roman portraiture, focused on symbolism & abstraction, not detail.
see illustrations below
LEFT the Colossus of Constantine RIGHT portrait of Arcadius, Eastern Roman Emperor from 395 to 408 AD.
