Gregory Shaw
Biographic Data
| ID | 3672742 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gregory Shaw |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gregory |
| FAMILY NAME | Shaw |
| SIGNATURE | SHAW G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Stonehill College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Ancient Magic, Theurgy, and Philosophy
This commentary reflects on Radcliffe Edmonds’ remarkable Ancient Magic, Theurgy, and Philosophy , focusing specifically on his study of the interface between theurgy and magic in late antiquity. Edmonds explores the striking similarities of theurgy and magic. After demonstrating a keen understanding of how theurgy worked for Iamblichus and the later Platonists, he compares its metaphysics and theory to the magical papyri. Although magicians were…
Socratic Wisdom and Platonic Knowledge in the Dialogues of Plato, written by Sara Ahbel-Rappe
Can We Recover Gnosis Today
This paper attempts to redefine what we mean by “gnosis.” It begins with a critique of scholars who—in order to maintain their supposed objectivity—avoid wrestling with the subjective experience of gnosis. They reduce gnosis to its literary, political, and religious contexts, and their explanation of these influences passes for our scholarly understanding of gnosis. Yet gnosis remains unknown to them. Once we dare to explore gnosis as a transform…
Iamblichus and the Talisman of Gnosis
For Neoplatonic philosophers, the Delphic oracle had authoritatively characterized their two great teachers, Iamblichus and Porphyry. Later Platonists cited the Pythia’s oracular pronouncement, “The Syrian is full of god; the Phoenican a polymath” as revealed wisdom. The Syrian Iamblichus, “full of god,” was more highly regarded in Platonic circles than the learned Porphyry, but because Iamblichus’ theurgical Platonism vanished after the sixth ce…
Demon est Deus Inversus
Iamblichus’s doctrine that the immortal soul becomes mortal is puzzling for Platonic scholars. According to Iamblichus, the embodied soul not only becomes mortal; as human, it also becomes “alienated” ( allotriōthen ) from divinity. Iamblichus maintains that the alienation and mortality of the soul are effected by daemons that channel the soul’s universal and immortal identity into a singular and mortal self. Yet, while daemons alienate the soul …
Taking the Shape of the Gods
Scholarship in the last few decades has corrected mischaracterizations of the Hermetica and Iamblichean theurgy as examples of the decline of Hellenic thinking, but questions remain of how to understand them, particularly since Iamblichus claims to follow the teachings of Hermes. This essay attempts to shed light on hermetic rebirth and the immortalization of the soul described in CH XIII and NH VI.6 by examining them according to the principles …
Theurgy and the Soul
Theurgy and the Platonist’s Luminous Body
The Plato praised by Proclus in his Platonic Theology is not Plato taught in departments of our universities. The enlightened Athenian whom we honor for transposing Western thought from the plane of revelation to plane of rational argument stands as founder of our rational tradition, for privileging thought over sensation, ideas over their material expression. In contrast to inherited caricature, Platonists of late antiquity believed that Plato w…
The Eyes of Lynceus
In the last decade, the world has experienced a profound cultural change effected by the digital revolution. The influence of the Internet on virtually all aspects of our lives has outpaced our ability to reflect on its consequences. Along with the papers written by Richard Frankel and Victor Krebs, this essay explores the challenge of the Internet as a new iteration of an ancient problem. The Neoplatonists of Late Antiquity recognized that when …
Practicing Gnosis
"Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets se…
Theurgy
A term coined by late second century CE Platonists to describe the deifying effect of Chaldaean rituals, the remnants of which are now preserved as the Chaldaean Oracles .
La lutte pour l'orthodoxie dans le platonisme tardif
......
Laotian 'Neutrality
To pursue an effective counter-insurgency program in South Vietnam, Laos had to be made secure from North Vietnamese incursion. Yet, President Kennedy was dismayed by the daunting military problem this posed. Averell Harriman assured the President that Laos could be rendered 'neutral', and thus harmless, by diplomatic means negotitated through the Geneva agreements. South Vietnam's President Diem disagreed completely with this direction and won H…
Eros and Arithmos
Wilson Harris's Metamorphoses
Callaloo - Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 1995
Art and Dialectic in the Work of Wilson Harris
In his first major work, Tristes Tropiques, Claude Lévi-Strauss made the point that the anthropologist had become the ‘hero’, shaman and priest of the secular world, his expeditions into the savage hinterland a modern-day substitute for the primitive rite of passage into manhood, power and prestige within the
No prominent works on this page.
Art and Dialectic in the Work of Wilson Harris
In his first major work, Tristes Tropiques, Claude Lévi-Strauss made the point that the anthropologist had become the ‘hero’, shaman and priest of the secular world, his expeditions into the savage hinterland a modern-day substitute for the primitive rite of passage into manhood, power and prestige within the
Wilson Harris's Metamorphoses
Callaloo - Volume 18, Number 1, Winter 1995
Eros and Arithmos
Laotian 'Neutrality
To pursue an effective counter-insurgency program in South Vietnam, Laos had to be made secure from North Vietnamese incursion. Yet, President Kennedy was dismayed by the daunting military problem this posed. Averell Harriman assured the President that Laos could be rendered 'neutral', and thus harmless, by diplomatic means negotitated through the Geneva agreements. South Vietnam's President Diem disagreed completely with this direction and won H…
La lutte pour l'orthodoxie dans le platonisme tardif
......
Theurgy
A term coined by late second century CE Platonists to describe the deifying effect of Chaldaean rituals, the remnants of which are now preserved as the Chaldaean Oracles .
Theurgy and the Platonist’s Luminous Body
The Plato praised by Proclus in his Platonic Theology is not Plato taught in departments of our universities. The enlightened Athenian whom we honor for transposing Western thought from the plane of revelation to plane of rational argument stands as founder of our rational tradition, for privileging thought over sensation, ideas over their material expression. In contrast to inherited caricature, Platonists of late antiquity believed that Plato w…
The Eyes of Lynceus
In the last decade, the world has experienced a profound cultural change effected by the digital revolution. The influence of the Internet on virtually all aspects of our lives has outpaced our ability to reflect on its consequences. Along with the papers written by Richard Frankel and Victor Krebs, this essay explores the challenge of the Internet as a new iteration of an ancient problem. The Neoplatonists of Late Antiquity recognized that when …
Practicing Gnosis
"Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets se…
Theurgy and the Soul
Taking the Shape of the Gods
Scholarship in the last few decades has corrected mischaracterizations of the Hermetica and Iamblichean theurgy as examples of the decline of Hellenic thinking, but questions remain of how to understand them, particularly since Iamblichus claims to follow the teachings of Hermes. This essay attempts to shed light on hermetic rebirth and the immortalization of the soul described in CH XIII and NH VI.6 by examining them according to the principles …
Demon est Deus Inversus
Iamblichus’s doctrine that the immortal soul becomes mortal is puzzling for Platonic scholars. According to Iamblichus, the embodied soul not only becomes mortal; as human, it also becomes “alienated” ( allotriōthen ) from divinity. Iamblichus maintains that the alienation and mortality of the soul are effected by daemons that channel the soul’s universal and immortal identity into a singular and mortal self. Yet, while daemons alienate the soul …
Iamblichus and the Talisman of Gnosis
For Neoplatonic philosophers, the Delphic oracle had authoritatively characterized their two great teachers, Iamblichus and Porphyry. Later Platonists cited the Pythia’s oracular pronouncement, “The Syrian is full of god; the Phoenican a polymath” as revealed wisdom. The Syrian Iamblichus, “full of god,” was more highly regarded in Platonic circles than the learned Porphyry, but because Iamblichus’ theurgical Platonism vanished after the sixth ce…
Can We Recover Gnosis Today
This paper attempts to redefine what we mean by “gnosis.” It begins with a critique of scholars who—in order to maintain their supposed objectivity—avoid wrestling with the subjective experience of gnosis. They reduce gnosis to its literary, political, and religious contexts, and their explanation of these influences passes for our scholarly understanding of gnosis. Yet gnosis remains unknown to them. Once we dare to explore gnosis as a transform…
Socratic Wisdom and Platonic Knowledge in the Dialogues of Plato, written by Sara Ahbel-Rappe
Ancient Magic, Theurgy, and Philosophy
This commentary reflects on Radcliffe Edmonds’ remarkable Ancient Magic, Theurgy, and Philosophy , focusing specifically on his study of the interface between theurgy and magic in late antiquity. Edmonds explores the striking similarities of theurgy and magic. After demonstrating a keen understanding of how theurgy worked for Iamblichus and the later Platonists, he compares its metaphysics and theory to the magical papyri. Although magicians were…
Philosophy (11 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (10 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Art (8 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (7 works) · Literature (6 works) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (5 works) · History (4 works)