Addey, Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW:

Crystal Addey, Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism: Oracles of the Gods. Ashgate studies in philosophy and theology in late antiquity. Farnham; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. xv, 335. ISBN 9781409451525. $134.95.

Reviewed by Ilinca Tanaseanu-Doebler, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (itanase@uni-goettingen.de)

Preview

In the last decades, the religious and ritual side of Neoplatonism has attracted growing scholarly interest. Crystal Addey’s study is part of this discourse. It explores divination as a central facet of the rituals that were subsumed in Neoplatonic circles under the label “theurgy”. The focus lies on two major figures whose debate shaped the Neoplatonic discourse about rituals: Porphyry and Iamblichus. The book aims to demonstrate the basic harmony between the two philosophers as far as divination and rituals are concerned. In so doing, it inserts itself into a strand of research that emphasises the fundamental unity of the Porphyrian oeuvre, also as far as rituals are concerned (e.g. Smith 2007 and 2011, Busine 2004 or 2005, Johnson 2013).

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Neoplatonism was an important philosophical — and in some ways religious —movement in the late antique world where Judaism and Christianity also lived. Related post here.