The Ancient Neo-Platonist Attack on Gnosticism – Plotinus Against the Gnostics

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While the attack on Gnosticism by the early church is well known, it is less appreciated that the pagan founder of Neo-Platonism Plotinus led a frontal assault on the gnostics in his famed Enneads as well. What were the philosophical, cosmological and moral objections Plotinus held against Gnosticism? In this episode, I explore a purely pagan set of criticisms to gnosticism. This episode is also a huge Neo-Platonism collaboration – check out the other episodes!

Filip Holm @LetsTalkReligion : What is Neoplatonism? (followed by Neoplatonism and Islam): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZEUo_sHoBw
Dr Angela Puca @drangelapuca : Plotinus and Iamblichus on Theurgy and Magic: https://youtu.be/lNqnNjsGExM
Zevi Slavin @SeekersofUnity : From Neoplatonism to Kabbalah, A Mystical Journey: https://youtu.be/UmkZ383LcW8
Dr. Dan Attrell @TheModernHermeticist : The Platonic Philosophers’ Creed by Thomas Taylor: https://youtu.be/Wzd98YSG6Hs
Dr. John Vervaeke @johnvervaeke : Levels of Intelligibility: Neoplatonism & 4E Cognitive Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbk3lA6zCic

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Recommended Reading:
Burns – Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism – 978-0812245790

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35 thoughts on “The Ancient Neo-Platonist Attack on Gnosticism – Plotinus Against the Gnostics”

  2. Thanks for that. Great exposition and you make a compelling case for Plotinus' criticisms of sethian gnosticism. Especially the later ones such as spiritual elitism and disdain for the material world.
    Happy New Year!
    Looking forward to more great content and awesome collaborations like this in 2023.

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  5. This collaboration of Youtube scholars on the subject of neoplatonism is a Godsend to me. Although I knew a little about neoplatonism and Plotinus, it has only been recently that I became aware of how influential Plotinus has been on Christian orthodoxy as well as Islam, especially Sufism. While I’ve been to 4 different seminaries, no one bothered to say much about Plotinus, which is a crime in my view given his influence on St. Augustine and Christian mysticism more generally. I also regard Plotinus’ concept of “the One” as offering an attractive alternative to the traditional, “old man in the sky” understanding of God prominent in most monotheistic religions. Thanks for going into some detail about Plotinus criticism of the Gnostics. I knew he disagreed with the Gnostics, but I was not sure just how and why until I watched this video.

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  8. "As long as we have bodies, we must inhabit the dwellings prepared for us by our good sister the Soul in her vast power of laborless creation"… Wow. I think it is important to have a healthy motivation to stay alive. Traditional Christianity was NOT doing that for me, because I didn't feel like I had a place in their vision of Heaven. The doctrine about how everything in the world is "fallen", including the hearts and minds of believers themselves, was twisting my intellect into perceiving the whole world, indeed, some sort of Lovecraftian prison ruled by demonic archons. Yuck! Feels so much better to focus on the essential goodness of creation, not the imperfections.

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  13. I think the big misunderstanding is, the Gnostics are trying to describe a narrative and Platonis is trying to describe a metaphysics. The gnostics saying matter is evil is a misunderstanding, maybe corrupt is a better interpretation. Platonist, Christans, etc, are viewing and interpreting things from a different perspective. The story or Sophia for example, is not meant to be completely metaphysical, its a story about a being. The best way I know to explain it without speaking of things I feel I shouldn't, is that things just happened and it was a state of confusion as the "universe" was formed.

    There is also the fact that this level of theology is mystery, and shrouded in layers of necessary analogy.

    The basic Platonist philosophy is correct, but the story of the ones who lived it is a different story, one which the first christians lived and witnessed.

    There was alot of animosity in Egypt in that time between Greek philosophers and Christans. He probably felt his culture was being destroyed. In a way he was right, many Christans were destroying the hellenic culture, but what he doesnt realize I think is that hellenic culture had already become corrupted, and decayed. The Romans were treating christans very badly, as well. They were quite the fighting couple for a while, embodying very distinct ethics and world view. The roman world was built on slavery, might, law, and at that point a very hedonistic society built on the backs of less fortunate people. Christianity was built on giving the unfortunate dignity, and making them equal in sight of each other. Yet the christans often seemed barbarous to the Romans and some Greeks, like the decedents of the ones settled in northern Egypt.

    Christianity is more about ethics, which in a way is magical power, it is a higher form of philosophy then what came before, but very much inspired by what was in Greece and Egypt, and Arabia. Platonis didnt know at the time, but Christianity would become married to Greek culture and even Roman culture, fixing the flaws within each other. The christan world of today and nearly since its inception, is the world that philosophy grew into, the world polis grew into, logic and science grew into.

    For someone as smart as he, I felt he should have realized that there was one god with many emanations. The christans have their mythos, the greeks have theirs, like everyone else, but it is all the same holy spirit. The most realistic of platonists concepts is this idea that the essence comes forth, and exists eternally. God although he is one, wishes to be known as many, and this is how he experiences himself and knows himself to not be lonely. The mythos we have, are not perfectly correct. Holy texts are not the literal words of god, although god may have some influence, they are stories and myths brought together by wise people. Throughout much of our history, these books were the only education many people had access to. Human religions to be honest, lie alot and try to sell themselves, but god is real, atleast the spirit, and the emenations are real, but I couldnt tell you their names, except some I have met and know, which there are infinite emmenations, Jesus and many people from the bible were real and divine or knew amazing supernatural things. The greeks knew things as well, as did all, everyone gets to meet the spirit in some form i think.

    Its important to understand. Religions are human creations, but god is real. Most religions in the inception arent designed to mislead or brainwash or misrepresent, but to try to understand and make sense of things.

    Me personally, I learn metaphysics from Greeks, Ethics from Jesus, mysteries from Egyptian and Greeks, I learn about old religions from Persians, nature from natives and tribals, there is so much out there and it all is useful. There were very intelligent people who were alive all throughout history, ancient libraries which disappeared but were studied by many people. Religion or spiritualism more specifically is a fundamental part of humanities nature, a reoccurring pattern which emerges over and over. The gnostics might not have been as educated as some of the academicians, but they were a special people chosen to carry out a special kind of work. The Greeks had many things in which they brought into the world, the christans some things they brought into the world. We shouldn't pollute what is divine with our base human ideals. Its not a competition. Its not a race. God doesnt work like that, some things that are of this earth are distinct from how god does things. It is a different kind of thing. God takes what is bad and turns it into something good. He takes what is good from all and brings it together into a higher and truer form of good, this is what I mean when I say god is love and truth, among many other things, there is no need for scarcity or fighting from his or her perspective. If you really want to know the truth, it is somewhere in between all of it. This is the importance of having a sort of humility, no matter how smart you are.

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  14. I think it’s fascinating the way the cultures and deep spiritual thought and metaphysics and stuff all came together in Alexandria. I’ve always been so fascinated with it and Platanus and Neoplatonism especially. I’ve probably read and reread The Enneads
    like a dozen times or more

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  22. Studying biology one would invariably find how nature is quite a baroque mess, the valentinian pleroma itself being as hair pulling as the average college biology schematic. Life is a huge DIY makeshift job of evolution, while at the same time being able of unfathomable precision, life takes so many different forms, but at the same time using the same four "letters" (a,t,c,g) language always.

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  26. Mr. Sledge! Can you make a video about the esoteric roots of Quakerism? I was reading in the book Listening to the Light by Jim Pym, and he mentions the "pseudo-Dionysius" roots of Quakerism. But I am no scholar! And I could not discern what pseudo-Dionysius entailed or implied…I cannot pick up the gist of it

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