Platonic Theories of Prayer
Edited by John Dillon (Trinity College Dublin) and Andrei Timotin (Romanian Academy – ISEES) – 12/2015
Platonic Theories of Prayer is a collection of ten essays on the topic of prayer in the later Platonic tradition. The volume originates from a panel on the topic held at the 2013 ISNS meeting in Cardiff, but is supplemented by a number of invited papers. Together they offer a comprehensive view of the various roles and levels of prayer characteristic of this period. The concept of prayer is shown to include not just formal petitionary or encomiastic prayer, but also theurgical practices and various states of meditation and ecstasy practiced by such major figures as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius or Dionysius the Areopagite.
(Text by the organizers)
Contents
Introduction – John Dillon and Andrei Timotin
The Platonic Philosopher at Prayer – John Dillon
Modes of Prayer in the Hellenic Tradition – Gilles Dorival
Philo on Prayer as Devotional Study – Menahem Luz
Prayer in Maximus of Tyre – Carl O’Brien
Awaiting the Sun: A Plotinian Form of Contemplative Prayer – Michael Wakoff
Porphyry on Prayer – Andrei Timotin
Prayer in Neoplatonism and the Chaldaean Oracles – Luc Brisson
Cosmic Etiology and Demiurgic Mimesis in Proclus’ Account of Prayer – Danielle A. Layne
The Transmission of Fire: Proclus’ Theurgical Prayers – José Manuel Redondo
Damascius and Dionysius on Prayer and Silence – Marilena Vlad
Indexes – John Dillon and Andrei Timotin
The Transmission of Fire: Proclus’ Theurgical Prayers – José Manuel Redondo
Damascius and Dionysius on Prayer and Silence – Marilena Vlad
Indexes – John Dillon and Andrei Timotin