Erotics and Kwowledge related to a short-story in The Thousand and One Nights
Rafael Ramón Guerrero
Original title: Erótica y Saber a propósito de un cuento de Las Mil y Una Noches
Published in Mirabilia 1
Keywords: Arabic Philosophy., Erotic, Greek Philosophy, wisdom.
The Thousand and One Nights is a collection of tales; many of which exposed a wisdom elaborated along the history by various peoples. A tale collects the conception that Greek philosophy, since Plato, set up and developed about love as a trend toward wisdom. In this article, I recall shortly this process through Greek philosophy, Christian world and medieval Islam, and I finally sketch the tale of the Thousand and One Nights.
The Platonism and Neo-Platonism influence on Origen’s exegesis of the Bible
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body
Keywords: Christian Platonist, Greek Philosophy, Neo-Platonism, Origen, Plato, Platonism, Plotinus, Proclus.
Origen is a Christian writer who knows very well not only the Bible and the Christian tradition until his day, but he has studied Greek philosophy and probably Greek literature. His knowledge of Greek philosophy and literature gives him an absolute privilege to deepen and enrich the meanings of the biblical language and terminology. Origen doesn’t adopt Greek philosophy without any critical thought. He accepts Platonism and Neo-Platonism ideas only if they were consistent with the church’s rule of faith. For him, the study of philosophy is understood as an exercise involving moral purification as well as intellectual training, as a necessary preparation for the study of Scripture. In this essay, we will show that Origen was a Christian Platonist, who accepts many things of Platonic philosophy and criticizes many others which do not belong to Plato but were expressed by some other philosophers as false Platonism ideas. Plotinus and Proclus showed a disliked view against Origen’s Christian writings, but they accepted his ideas concerning God and “the things”, deeming them raised by Greek philosophy. In Origen’s theological system, Neoplatonic features can be underlined. The knowledge of the Bible is for Origen the only truth, but Platonism and Neoplatonism provide a simpler and more natural explanation of the revelation of God.
