Polycentric Polytheism and the Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

The comparison drawn by the Neoplatonist Olympiodorus between the Stoic doctrine of the reciprocal implication of the virtues and the Neoplatonic doctrine of the presence of all the gods in each helps to elucidate the latter. In particular, the idea of primary and secondary "perspectives" in each virtue, when applied to Neoplatonic theology, can clarify certain theoretical statements made by Proclus in his Cratylus commentary concerning specific patterns of inherence of deities in one another. More broadly, the "polycentric" nature of Neoplatonic theology provides a theoretical articulation for henotheistic practices within polytheism without invoking evolutionist notions of "monotheistic tendencies." The Neoplatonic distinction between the modes of unity exhibited by divine individuals ("henads") and ontic units ("monads"), which is integral to the polycentric theology, also provides a theoretical basis for the non-reductive crosscultural comparison between deities. The polycentric theology thus offers a promising foundation for a polytheistic philosophy of religion.Olympiodorus (fl. late sixth-century CE) was one of the last Pagan Platonists to teach at Alexandria, and all his extant works are apparently composed of notes taken from his lecture courses. His students were likely overwhelmingly Christian, and probably not studying to become philosophers, but to acquire a veneer of erudition for future careers as lawyers, imperial functionaries, or even clergymen. On both these accounts, then, it is surprising that at a certain point in his commentary on Plato's First Alcibiades, Olympiodorus elucidates a Stoic doctrine already sufficiently recondite for his students by referring to a doctrine not only even more recondite, but also somewhat scandalous to teach to Christians, namely the doctrine we may call polycentric polytheism. One can imagine this relieved their boredom. Frequently in his extant courses, we can see Olympiodorus trying to titillate his students with bits of Paganism. He was probably wiser than to risk proselytizing, which would have cost him his post. More likely, he hoped by giving in to their thirst for information about traditions rapidly acquiring a patina of the exotic and transgressive to entice his students to a broader interest

Bhakti and Henadology

“…See also Adluri and Bagchee (2016), where it is argued that "to use a Plotinian expression … Bhakti is best understood as a kind of reversion, simultaneously intellectual and experiential, in which the soul through insight into its relation to a greater totality comes to rest in itself," (118). 23 For a fuller account of the structural characteristics of the henadic manifold, see Butler (2005); on "polycentric polytheism," see Butler (2008a).…”