Christian Platonism

Alexander J. B. Hampton is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Toronto, specialising in metaphysics, poetics and nature. He is the author of Romanticism and the Re-Invention of Modern Religion (Cambridge, 2019) and co-editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Religion and the Environment. John Peter Kenney is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Saint Michael's College. He is the author of Mystical Monotheism: A Study in Ancient Platonic Theology (1991), The Mysticism of Saint Augustine: Rereading the Confessions (2005), Contemplation and Classical Christianity: A Study in Augustine (2013), and On God, the Soul, Evil, and the Rise of Christianity (2018).

• Introduction. Christianity and Platonism Alexander J. B. Hampton and John Peter Kenney; Part I. Concepts: 1.1 The perennial value of platonism Lloyd Gerson; 1.2 The ideas as thoughts of God John Dillon and Daniel J. Tolan; 1.3 The one and the trinity Andrew Radde-Gallwitz; 1.4. Creation, begetting, desire, and re-creation in Christian platonism Kevin Corrigan; 1.5 The concept of theology Olivier Boulnois; 1.6 Participation: Aquinas and his Neoplatonic sources Rudi A. te Velde; Part II. History: 2.1. The Bible and early Christian platonism Mark Edwards; 2.2 Platonism and Christianity in late antiquity John Peter Kenney; 2.3 The development of Christian platonism in the medieval west Lydia Schumacher; 2.4 Christian platonism in Byzantium Torstein Tollefsen; 2.5 Renaissance Christian platonism and ficino Stephen Gersh; 2.6 Northern renaissance platonism from Cusa to Böhme Cecilia Muratori and Mario Meliadò; 2.7 Christian platonism in early modernity Derek A. Michaud; 2.8 The counter-enlightenment and romantic platonism Douglas Hedley; 2.9 Christian platonism and modernity Joshua Levi Ian Gentzke; Part III. Engagements: 3.1 Christian platonism and natural science Andrew Davison and Jacob Holsinger Sherman; 3.2 Christian platonism, nature and environmental crisis Alexander J. B. Hampton; 3.3 Art and meaning Richard Viladesau; 3.4 Value, dualism and materialism Charles Taliaferro; 3.5 Christian love and platonic friendship Catherine Pickstock; 3.6 Multiplicity in Earth and heaven Stephen Clark; Index.

''What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?' Tertullian famously asked. For every Christian thinker like Tertullian or Adolph Harnack who questioned the relation between Platonism and Christianity, there have been at least dozen others who have welcomed Platonism in its many varieties as an invaluable conversation partner in the effort to express the inner meaning of Christian faith and its commitment to transcendence. Christian Platonism: A History is a bold and comprehensive study of the interaction of the Platonic tradition and Christian thought over the past two millennia. More than twenty essays by noted scholars explore the concepts, the history, and the implications of Christian Platonism in a stunning new contribution to a perennial issue.' Bernard McGinn, University of Chicago Divinity School