I will definitely read that bit. Very interesting. Margaret Barker has advanced the alternate view, that Pythagorean thought, which is upstream of Platonism, was heavily influenced by Jewish mysticism, for whatever that is worth. If nothing else, as you note with the mention of Philo, there is a certain degree of camaraderie among the views. IMO, the Logos is continually seeking expression, and perhaps takes different forms in the different ages and aeons until the restoration of all things ("For the Word of God and God wills always and in all things to accomplish the mystery of his embodiment," St. Maximus, Ambiguum 7)—or else the singular, inherent longing of all persons for the expression of the Logos is manifested in their diverse lives in different ways.
RE: Butler, agree. I have to respect his compelling scholarship, but in a certain sense, as I've said elsewhere, it tends to (perhaps inadvertantly) deprecate The One to either a variable or almost to 0, mathematically speaking...which simply feels wrong. I tend to regard The One, again speaking mathematically, as 1, unity, which thus figures into every other number, seeming almost to be a variable but never losing its function as the source of Unity and Being.
An addendum to the above: It's probably worth saying that there's a strong argument to be made that Pythagorean/Platonic philosophy can in itself be used as an initiatic process unto itself...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-09-08 12:51 pm (UTC)RE: Butler, agree. I have to respect his compelling scholarship, but in a certain sense, as I've said elsewhere, it tends to (perhaps inadvertantly) deprecate The One to either a variable or almost to 0, mathematically speaking...which simply feels wrong. I tend to regard The One, again speaking mathematically, as 1, unity, which thus figures into every other number, seeming almost to be a variable but never losing its function as the source of Unity and Being.
An addendum to the above: It's probably worth saying that there's a strong argument to be made that Pythagorean/Platonic philosophy can in itself be used as an initiatic process unto itself...
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