The Role of Divine Providence, Will and Love in Iamblichus’ Theory of Theurgic Prayer and Religious Invocation

Iamblichus provides a defence and explanation of the operation of theurgic prayer and invocation within his treatise, which is now called De Mysteriis, one of the most extensive surviving Late Antique works on Graeco-Roman polytheistic religious practices. Theurgic prayer and invocation included the use of unknowable or so called meaninglessnames and probably included the use of strings of vowels (voces magicae), although Iamblichus does not refer to these explicitly. This paradoxical conceptualisation of divine will, love and providence is based on the notion that divine will is a complete understanding of the good. The centrality of divine providence and will in theurgic ritual, and the metaphysical and cosmological framework upon which this view of ritual is based, represent one of the key criteria which Iamblichus uses to distinguish theurgy from the often antagonistic magical practices of his contemporaries. Keywords:de mysteriis; divine providence; Iamblichus; invocation; love; providence; religious; theurgic prayer; theurgy

Divine Providence · Invocation · Prayer · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies

• Aklî Temaşaya İmkân Sağlaması Açısından Iamblichus’un Theurge Ritüelleri İle İbn Ṭufeyl’de Riyazet Düşüncesi Üzerine Bir Karşılaştırma

  Open Access•Ömer CERAN•Şırnak Üniversitesi İlahiyat…•2023

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