Plethon's Summary of the Doctrines of Zoroaster and Plato

[sdi]

Plethon was a Greek Neoplatonist who played a major role in kickstarting the Platonic revival of the Renaissance. He wrote a lot of expository material about Platonism and Neoplatonism which, unfortunately, were mostly burned by the Church after he died. One of his surviving texts is a very brief Summary of the Doctrines of Zoroaster and Plato, which outlines twelve bullet points which form the core of a Platonist religion, much like an even more condensed On the Gods and the World. (Plethon evidently believed that Zoroaster was the original source of Pythagoreanism and hence of Platonism.)

Below is John Opsopaus' summary of the Summary. (The original is not much longer, though.) I thought it might be of interest to those who are interested in dipping their toes into Neoplatonism.

Concerning the Gods

1. The gods exist, the chief of whom is Zeus.

2. The gods look after us, either directly or through their subordinates.

3. The gods are the causes of good, not of evil, for humans and other beings.

4. The gods act according to an immutable fate emanated from Zeus.

Concerning the All [e.g. the Cosmos]

5. The All, including gods of the second [e.g. supercelestial] and third [e.g. celestial] orders, was created by Zeus and is everlasting.

6. The All is a unity assembled from many things.

7. The All was created perfectly.

8. The All is preserved immutably.

Concerning Humankind

9. The human soul, being akin to the gods, is immortal and everlasting.

10. The human soul is always attached to one or another mortal body and, by joining the immortal to the mortal, contributes to the unity of the All.

11. Because of human kinship with the gods, the good is the goal that suits our life.

12. The gods, by fixing the laws of humankind, place our happiness in the immortal part of our being.