The Good of Plato, the Neoplatonic One, and The God of Dante
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.36394Keywords:
Dante, Platonism, Neoplatonism, God, unity-multiplicityAbstract
Dante’s use of the point, circle, and sphere as images of God and of wax, seal, and light as images of the divine imprint on creation is striking in its likeness to the Platonic and Neoplatonic imagery of the Good and the One, respectively. They convey a similar view of the divine—that of unity, immutability, incorporeality, ubiquitousness, and aseity or existence in and of itself. They view it as the centre and beginning of all creation, as the source of hierarchy in the created world, and as the source of a simultaneous craving for that perfection and for the world of matter, that is for unity and multiplicity.
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