Participation in the Divine

A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era

Douglas Hedley, Daniel J. Tolan

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009439992
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

The concept of participation in a transcendent domain of existence is central to the Platonic and the Judaeo-Christian traditions. It is how thinkers throughout history have justified existence itself, explaining temporal being vis-à-vis God. Yet in the wake of secularisation and the widespread phenomenon of disenchantment, this once ubiquitous and coveted notion has fallen into desuetude. The essays in this volume analyse and explore this key concept in the history of Western thought. They provide, for the first time, a rigorous and accessible account of participation, a pivotal concept in Western philosophy and theology, from antiquity to the modern era. Bringing together contributions by an international team of leading scholars of the Platonic tradition, the volume challenges a standard distinction between philosophy and theology. It also enables a comprehensive understanding of figures who do not fit neatly into the modern university's division of these subjects.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 The Lord Is One
• 2 The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato
• 3 Origen on Participation
• 4 Forms, Intellects, and Angels: Plotinus on Participation
• 5 Participation in the Divine in Gregory of Nyssa
• 6 Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind: Correcting Bonaventure and Gilson via Plotinus and Marius Victorinus
• 7 The Principle of Cosmic Unification in the Athenian School of Platonism
• 8 St. Maximus the Confessor on Participation
• 9 Participation in Medieval Platonism
• 10 Participation as God’s Indwelling: Aquinas’ Neoplatonic Systematisation of Aristotle for Participation in the Divine
• 11 Some Late Medieval Discussions of Participation in the Divine
• 12 Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
• 13 Richard Hooker’s Metaphysics of Divine Participation
• 14 The Transcendence of Holiness: Divine Goodness and Human Freedom in Henry More’s Critique of Baruch de Spinoza
• 15 Ralph Cudworth on Causality and Substantial Forms: Towards a New Theory of Causation
• 16 The Romantic Legacy: Participation as Reciprocity
• 17 Participation Revived and Revised: The Speculative Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead
• Index