Elements of Theology 1: Introduction

[sdi]

For all we know about Greek mathematics, very few works have survived: there's Euclid's Elements, a few eclectic works by Archimedes, Apollonius' Conics, Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic, Ptolemy's Almagest, and that's basically it. And yet, we consider ourselves to have a pretty good picture of the achievements of the Greeks! This is not because we have much information about who figured out what and when they did; it's because Euclid's Elements is the single most comprehensive textbook in any field of study ever devised. It teaches everything that the Greeks knew about mathematics up to that point in a beautifully didactic way: master each step, and you will have all the tools you need to understand the next step. It's not elegant—there are usually simpler ways to prove all of the things it tries to—but it's almost superhuman in it's ability to teach: consequently, it was the premier textbook of mathematics for the next twenty-two hundred years.

Few books can even approach it in ubiquity—indeed, few even try! But there's at least one book that set out to do for metaphysics what Euclid did for mathematics, and that's Proclus' Elements of Theology. Its proponents—Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example—consider it successful in doing so; its detractors reasonably point out that while every educated person knows who Euclid is, only philosophy nerds have even heard of Proclus, let alone read him.

Whatever. I'm not here to worry about what anyone says, I'm here to master theology. In the same way that I've done read-along series on Sallustius' On the Gods and the World and Plotinus' Enneads, I'm going to go ahead and commit to doing one on Proclus' Elements, too. The Elements consists of some two hundred short propositions, generally grouped by a theme, working from basics such as "one has to come before many" to the likes of reincarnation and the shapes and sizes of souls. I will be irregularly posting summaries and commentary on a group of propositions at a time. The usual warnings that "I'm a student" and "I'm as prone as anyone to tripping over myself" apply.

I will be working from three translations: Thomas Taylor's (I have a very handsome hardback copy from The Prometheus Trust which I can recommend), Thomas Johnson's, and E. R. Dodds'. I expect to generally follow Dodds, but I trust Taylor's understanding of the material more than the others and will be double-checking against him heavily. (Johnson has the merit of frequently referencing other works by way of explanation.)

Ultimately, my goal here is to better understand Plotinus, whose model of metaphysics has been very useful to me (both theoretically and practically); but Plotinus was such a major undertaking that I was radically transformed by the process of studying it. Who can say where we'll end up with Proclus? Nonetheless, I embark, and I hope you'll follow along.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

The first proposition really rewards continued meditation, and in both a literal and spiritual sense is the principle upon which the entire edifice—arguably, the entirety of the cosmos and reality, if you're of that mindset—rests: the relationship of the Many to the One, of the necessity of unity before any kind of multiplicity. Almost mathematical (maybe even explicitly mathematical!) in its elegance, it's both reductive and expansive at once.

Looking forward to this expository series, sdi, and all blessings.