Papers by Damian Mrugalski
Verbum Vitaae, 2025
This article aims to demonstrate that the concept of God's infinity, as developed by Gregory of N... more This article aims to demonstrate that the concept of God's infinity, as developed by Gregory of Nyssa in many of his works, may have been influenced by earlier Christian theology, rather than solely by Plotinus' philosophy, as many contemporary scholars believe. One of the theologians who introduced this concept before Plotinus was Clement of Alexandria, who not only defined God as the infinite One, but also, like Gregory, drew important anthropological conclusions from the notion of infinity. After an introduction describing the history of research on the presence of a positively understood concept of the infinity of God in Christian theology before Plotinus, the article compares the doctrine of Clement of Alexandria with that of Gregory of Nyssa in the following three thematic sections: (1) the infinity of the incorporeal being; (2) the infinity of the Good; and (3) the infinity of the process of human assimilation to God. The method adopted in the article is a comparative analysis of ancient texts. The research carried out leads to the conclusion that both Clement and Gregory understand the nature of the infinite God similarly, use similar metaphors and argumentation, and believe that the process of human assimilation to God extends into infinity.
Nowoczesność Platona: Wykłady z Letniego Seminarium Platońskiego w Lanckoronie, 2025
Szlezák, jeden z twórców nowej interpretacji Platona w świetle nauk niespisanych, wylicza aż trzy... more Szlezák, jeden z twórców nowej interpretacji Platona w świetle nauk niespisanych, wylicza aż trzynaście twierdzeń, odnoszących się do Idei Dobra, które zostają wyrażone explicite w Platońskim Państwie 1 . Wszystkie razem stanowią według autora coś w rodzaju "teorii zasady". I tak, Idea Dobra (pomijając niektóre z twierdzeń) jest przede wszystkim ostateczną przyczyną celową dla bytów ożywionych 2 . Jest też przyczyną poznawalności i prawdziwości rzeczy poznawalnych, czyli idei 3 . Ponadto, jest ona przyczyną bytu idei, to znaczy ich istnienia i istoty (τὸ εἶναὶ τε καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν), mimo że ona sama nie jest istotą, lecz czymś przewyższającym istotę godnością i mocą (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος) 4 . Stąd też wynika transcendencja ontologiczna Idei Dobra, którą obrazuje metafora słońca 5 . Choć Platon nie informuje czytelników swojego dialogu, czym w swej istocie jest Idea Dobra, to jednak stwierdza, że jest ona poznawalna 1
"Christians of the Patristic Period in Relation to Nature", Studia Patristica 131, 2024
In the first three centuries AD, there was a debate in Platonic circles on the origin of the mate... more In the first three centuries AD, there was a debate in Platonic circles on the origin of the material world. Is the world generated or ungenerated? If it is generated, was it generated in time or out of time? Jewish and Christian thinkers of the first centuries AD joined this debate. Interestingly, their answer was not at all based on a literal interpretation of Genesis. The seven days of the work of creation, especially for the fathers of the Alexandrian tradition, should be interpreted allegorically, that is, as representing a logical rather than a temporal order. The Alexandrians would have agreed with many of the theses posited by the Greco-Roman Middle Platonists. The world could exist eternally as created by God. However, the argumentation of such a thesis differed. According to the Greco-Roman Middle Platonists, the world is eternal because Ideas, matter and God are eternal, and are thus the core cosmological principles. According to the Jewish and Christian Platonists, the world is eternal because the Good, which is God, is an infinite creative power. If God ceased his beneficent activity, he would cease to be God. The purpose of this article is to trace these two types of arguments concerning the origin of the world.
Vox Patrum, 2024
There is a belief among scholars of Augustine's philosophy that he derived the notion of the posi... more There is a belief among scholars of Augustine's philosophy that he derived the notion of the positively understood infinity of God from Plotinus. Another opinio communis holds that Origen inherited a negative understanding of infinity from the ancient philosophers and therefore considered God's power to be finite. This paper aims to demonstrate that both opinions are erroneous. Although Augustine was familiar with Plotinus' thought, his reflections on the infinity of God have more in common with the theses put forward by Origen than with Neoplatonism. In both authors, the issue arises when they are commenting on the same biblical passages, and both authors wrestle with the same aporia caused by accepting the doctrine of God's infinite power and knowledge. If, according to Aristotle's logic, infinity cannot be encompassed by anything, can the divine intellect encompass infinite ideas? Both authors answer this question in the affirmative.
The article posits that Augustine may have adopted the doctrine of the infinity of God directly from Origen, since he had access to many of his works translated into Latin, or through Novatian and Hilary of Poitiers, as they were both influenced by Origen's thought .
Verbum Vitae, 2023
This article examines Philo’s philosophical interpretation of the three theophanies in Exodus, wh... more This article examines Philo’s philosophical interpretation of the three theophanies in Exodus, which would, centuries later, continue to be considered by the great thinkers responsible for developing negative theology, such as Gregory of Nyssa and Dionysius the Areopagite. Although Exod 33:11 clearly states that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as if someone were to speak to his own friend, according to Philo, the lawgiver neither saw the face of God, nor learned the proper name of God, nor was he able to comprehend the essence of God. These very statements became the inspiration for later apophaticism. The present article seeks to establish to what extent Philo’s theses were influenced by Plato’s philosophy or by later Middle Platonism, and to what extent Philo, by commenting allegorically on the Pentateuch, becomes the initiator of new ideas hitherto unknown in philosophical discourse. In the course of the analyses, three great questions of apophatic theology are discussed: 1. the unnameability of God; 2. the unknowability of God’s essence; and 3. the knowability of God’s nature by grace .
Verbum Vitae, 2023
The earliest representations of God (or gods) in many religious traditions were associated with v... more The earliest representations of God (or gods) in many religious traditions were associated with various kinds of anthropomorphisation. On the other hand, the earliest Greek philosophers already criticised this anthropomorphic thinking about the gods. We find such a criticism in a passage by Xenophanes (6th century BC): “But if horses or oxen or lions had hands or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men, horses would draw the figures of the gods as similar to horses, and the oxen as similar to oxen”. An analogous tension likewise emerges in the Bible, which of course abounds in anthropomorphic images of God and yet contains statements such as: “God is not a human being” (Num 23:19); “No man can see the face of God and live” (Exod 33:20); “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18); and finally, the famous statement: “I am who I am” (Exod 3:14). This last formulation, in the philosophical interpretation of the Bible by many Fathers of the Church, did not represent a revelation of God’s name, but rather pointed to the fact that the only thing human intellect is capable of grasping about God is his existence.
Such early critiques of anthropomorphism gave impetus to later, more in-depth reflections on how, or even whether, humans might gain knowledge of God. Thus was born apophatic theology, which, according to the meaning of the Greek word ἀπόφασις, seeks to gain insight into God (divinity) through negation, that is, by expressing what God is not rather than what he is. We find such a theology already in the doctrines of Greek philosophers, and later in the works of Jewish and Christian thinkers and mystics of the first centuries AD. Some of them denied even any possibility of knowing the essence of God, or of adequately speaking about Him. Over time, however, negative theology gave place to cataphatic, or positive, theology.
Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2022
"The Encounter Between Greek Philosophy and Biblical Thought in Hellenistic Judaism and the Birth... more "The Encounter Between Greek Philosophy and Biblical Thought in Hellenistic Judaism and the Birth of Christology"
In the 20th century, there was a dispute between Protestant and Catholic scholars over the Hellenisation of Christianity, or rather the evaluation of the phenomenon of Hellenisation. According to Adolf von Harnack, Hellenisation destroyed or deformed the essence of Christianity. According to Joseph Ratzinger, on the contrary: the encounter between biblical thought and Greek philosophy helped to express the essence of Christianity adequately. Ratzinger has devoted many works to the polemic against Harnack’s thesis, pointing out that Hellenisation took place, not only after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but much earlier. However, Ratzinger does not cite many examples and arguments as confirmation of his thesis. This article is a kind of supplement to Ratzinger’s thesis. Its author shows how certain theoretical solutions arose within Hellenistic Judaism, i.e. in the time before the birth of Jesus, and how these were then used by Christians in their Christological argumentation. It was the philosophical interpretation of the Pentateuch made by Philo of Alexandria, but which also appears in the Bible itself (especially in the Sapiential Books), that helped the Fathers of the Church to perceive a pre-existent Logos in the theophanies of the Old Testament. This philosophical interpretation also gave rise to the concept of gaeneratio aeterna, i.e. the argument in favour of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father.
Damian Mrugalski OP, "The Notion of Divine Infinity and Unknowability: Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria in a Polemic with Greek Philosophy", in: "Hellenism, Early Judaism and Early Christianity: Transmission and Transformation of Ideas", ed. R. Fialová – J. Hoblík, Berlin 2023, 69-84., 2022
Plotinus is considered to be the inventor of the notion of divine infinity and unknowability. In ... more Plotinus is considered to be the inventor of the notion of divine infinity and unknowability. In fact, however, these themes already appear in Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria. The aim of this paper is to show how philosophical reflection on the Bible led to the emergence of a new philosophical concept, which was then later developed by the founder of Neoplatonism.
While Gregory of Nyssa’s relation to Origen has been subject to much discussion, there has been l... more While Gregory of Nyssa’s relation to Origen has been subject to much discussion, there has been little attention to the direct or indirect influence of Clement of Alexandria. This colloquium aims to explore the extent to which it is legitimate to speak of an “Alexandrian tradition” that links these two Fathers. Some questions we would like to consider together are: Is it possible to find in Gregory a way of doing theology that originates with Clement? Is Origen’s legacy a necessary mediation? What are the similarities and differences in these Fathers’ appropriation of the Biblical tradition?
Verbum Vitae, 2021
"On the Notion of Hellenization": The term Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture an... more "On the Notion of Hellenization": The term Hellenization refers to the spread of Greek culture and its adoption by non-Greek peoples, in the era that begins with the conquests of Alexander the Great (i.e. from the second half of the 4th century BC onwards). The term is defined likewise or similarly in many modern dictionaries and encyclopedias of antiquity. The notion of Hellenization became problematic when, in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, historians of religion associated it with certain kinds of value judgements and sometimes even ideology. Therefore, some contemporary scholars propose abandoning the concept of ‘Hellenization’ in the study of antiquity, or to replace it with others that would describe the phenomena occurring in the Hellenistic era neutrally. This article shall present an overview of selected positions with regard to the notion of ‘Hellenization’ itself, and attempt to answer the question whether this ideologically loaded term can be avoided in contemporary research on the Hellenistic Age.
Verbum Vitae, 2021
The problem of Hellenization is revived in contemporary theological debate and its evaluation may... more The problem of Hellenization is revived in contemporary theological debate and its evaluation may vary. The editors of the Verbum Vitae invite you to take part in such a debate. The articles we are waiting for may concern very detailed issues, concerning the analysis of Greek philosophical concepts, language, rhetoric and literary genres present in the Old and New Testaments and in early Christian theology, as well as more general topics concerning culture, intellectual climate, or certain educational, political and religious institutions formed in the Hellenistic era.
We also invite authors of articles to examine the interaction and circulation of ideas and concepts present in Greco-Roman religion and philosophy as well as those used by authors of the Bible books and Christian theologians. Polemics with contemporary researchers who positively or negatively evaluate the influence of Hellenization on the development of Jewish and Christian theology are also welcome. The subject matter of the volume is therefore very wide, but it should be remembered that the respective articles should in some way be related to one of the three thematic sections of which each volume of the Verbum Vitae journal consists: 1. The Old Testament, 2. The New Testament, 3. The Fathers of the Church and Theology.
The Verbum Vitae journal is currently one of the three highest-scoring theological journals in Poland. In a new evaluation by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland (09.02.2021), our journal received 100 points. Moreover, the Verbum Vitae journal is present in SCOPUS, ATLA and EBSCO databases. The presence in the last two databases, in full text form, makes every text published in our journal available in PDF format in every university library in the world. In this way, the Verbum Vitae is an effective place to participate in the international academic debate.
“The Bible in the Patristic Period”, ed. Mariusz Szram and Marcin Wysocki, “Studia Patristica” 103, Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2021
In the patristic exegesis of the first three centuries AD, the Old Testament theophanies were usu... more In the patristic exegesis of the first three centuries AD, the Old Testament theophanies were usually considered as an argument for the pre-existence of the Logos, as well as for his Divine origin. Furthermore, according to Greek and Latin apologists, the phrase ‘I am who I am’ (Exod. 3:14) from the story of God’s revelation on Mount Horeb was pronounced, not by the Father, but by the Son who was always working with the Father. The theologians of the Alexandrian tradition interpreted Exod. 3:14 in a slightly different way. Their attention was mainly attracted by the verb ‘to be’, or, more precisely, by the designation of God as ‘being’ (ὁ ὤν), since such a participle form appears in the Greek translation of the Septuagint. According to Philo, Clement and Origen of Alexandria, it is only God who is a true being, because, unlike other beings, He is eternal and immutable in His existence. On the other hand, the Alexandrian thinkers also claimed that the term ‘being’ (τὸ ὄν) could not be a proper name of God. As the Divine essence is transcendent and infinite, it cannot be embraced by any definition or name. The God of the Alexandrians, therefore, remains unknowable and unnameable. Although in Alexandrian exegesis apophatics takes precedence over the ontologisation of the name of God, the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures proposed by Philo, Clement and Origen retains its philosophical character. In fact, in its background it appeals to numerous philosophical concepts, and especially to the Platonic and Middle Platonic theory of participation and the doctrine of the primary and supreme Principles.
Kronos, 2020
John Dillon, in his monograph “The Roots of Platonism”, put forward the thesis that the doctrine ... more John Dillon, in his monograph “The Roots of Platonism”, put forward the thesis that the doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts had already appeared in the Old Academy and was continuously present in the Platonic tradition preceding the emergence of Middle Platonism. However, so far researchers have assumed that the first thinker who explicitly identified Ideas with God’s thoughts was a Jewish thinker, Philo of Alexandria. Dillon supported his argumentation on very uncertain and unclear sources, which are some of the statements contained in fragments of Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Antiochus of Ascalon. According to the Irish researcher, Philo was familiar with this philosophical tradition, and therefore his doctrine of the Logos of God, in which the world of Ideas is located, is by no means original. In this paper, Mrugalski aims to prove that the Jewish thinker of Alexandria was able to build his doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts himself. In fact, this concept arises within the allegorical commentary on the Pentateuch, which, on the one hand, uses numerous philosophical concepts and, on the other, continues to be a biblical commentary. Meanwhile, biblical theology hypostatized divine attributes such as the wisdom of God or the Logos long before Philo and assigned them eternity and creative power. It is true that the thinker of Alexandria knew and even quoted the works of Plato, Aristotle, or the Stoics. Sometimes he also argued with their concepts. Yet we are not sure whether Philo knew the fragments of the philosophers of the Old Academy to which Dillon refers. Moreover, we are not sure whether the doctrine of Ideas as God’s thoughts appears in these fragments at all. However, we have access to the biblical texts on which Philo commented, and we can trace the argumentation within which he came to the conclusion that God is an intellect that eternally thinks and by thinking creates the world, first the intelligible one and then the perceptible one.
Ecclesia Orans, 2020
Il lato positivo del libro di Vincenzo Lomiento, oltre ad una buona introduzione storica, è quell... more Il lato positivo del libro di Vincenzo Lomiento, oltre ad una buona introduzione storica, è quello di ripercorrere il modo di pensare di Origene nel suo "Commento al Vangelo di Giovanni", basato solo sul testo stesso. Questa procedura, in ulteriori ricerche, può mostrare che ci sono alcune differenze (o similitudini) rispetto ad altre opere esegetiche dell’Alessandrino. La monografia di Lomiento può essere anche un buon manuale per coloro che stanno appena familiarizzando con l’opera di Origene, o con l’esegesi patristica in generale. Certamente nel "mare magnum" della letteratura specializzata c’è spazio anche per un saggio che presenta in modo relativamente semplice i temi origeniani e non entra nella complessità degli argomenti che interessano il ricercatore più avanzato.
Studia z Historii Filozofii, 2019
Many Christian thinkers of the first centuries after Christ believed – or apologetically postulat... more Many Christian thinkers of the first centuries after Christ believed – or apologetically postulated – that Plato would have read Moses, because, in his dialogue Timaeus, Plato included the biblical doctrine of the creation of the world. Some of them claimed that Plato understood what he read in Moses’ writings, while others held that Plato did not really understand Moses, since Plato taught that the world was made of ungenerated matter. Both analyses fit into a broader context: the discussion among Middle Platonists surrounding the literal and allegorical interpretations of Timaeus. It is in this framework that the doctrine of the creation of the world from nothing(ex nihilo) appeared. The purpose of this article is to lay out the philosophical discussion about the origin of the world as it developed between the first and third centuries AD. In connection with this, we test the thesis of Gerhard May in his monograph Creatio ex nihilo, which claims that the doctrine of creation from nothing was established in the theology of the Church only after Christian thinkers perceived the destructive influence of Plato’s cosmological theories, which had led to the rise of Gnosticism.
Przegląd Tomistyczny, 2019
ESCHATOLOGICAL UNKNOWABILITY OF THE ESSENCE OF GOD: AN ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME THE METAPHYSICS OF ARI... more ESCHATOLOGICAL UNKNOWABILITY OF THE ESSENCE OF GOD: AN ATTEMPT TO OVERCOME THE METAPHYSICS OF ARISTOTLE IN THE DOCTRINES OF GREGORY OF NYSSA AND THOMAS AQUINAS.
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle puts forward the thesis that the infinite is unknowable. In fact, the finite human intellect is unable to embrace any infinite form. Anyway, such an infinite form does not exist according to the Stagirite. The infinite can only exist in potency, not in act. In his Physics, on the other hand, the philosopher states that “nothing is perfect unless it has an end”. The Fathers of the Church struggled with these and similar theses. Considering God as an infinite being, they also had to answer the question whether his essence is knowable for the human intellect. For Scripture says that “we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). The Greek Fathers’ answer, however, was negative. Because of its infinity, the essence of God cannot be fully comprehended, not even by the souls of saved men. Thomas Aquinas, although he also considered that the essence and power of God is infinite, in contrast to Aristotle, and thus impossible to fully comprehend, postulates that saved men will be able to see the essence of God – this is what eschatological visio beatifica is all about. Of course, this cannot be achieved without the help of God, who by his grace will enable the created human intellects to do what exceeds their natural abilities. It transpires, however, that this eschatological knowledge of the essence of God will never be complete. The aim of this article is to present two different theological approaches related to the issue of the eschatological unknowability of God’s essence by saved men. The first one is the position of Gregory of Nyssa, who assumes the unknowability of the essence of God, although he does not reject the infinite increase in the knowledge of God by man. The second is the position of Thomas Aquinas, who assumes the knowability of the essence of God, but states that it can never be a complete comprehension. These two positions, although they seem to be very different, are similar and convergent in many respects.
Roczniki Filozoficzne, 2019
AGNOSTOS THEOS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFINITY AND THE UNKNOWABILITY OF GOD IN THE DOCTRINES O... more AGNOSTOS THEOS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INFINITY AND THE UNKNOWABILITY OF GOD IN THE DOCTRINES OF THE MIDDLE PLATONISTS.
In the times preceding the emergence of Neo-Platonism (1st–3rd century BC), the philosophers now known as Middle Platonists elaborated an extensive reflection on the possibility of knowing God, and the ways that could lead to acquiring knowledge about the transcendent. According to Plato, “To discover the Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were a thing impossible” (PLATO, Timaeus 28c). The Middle Platonists believed that God, whom they sometimes identified with the Platonic One and Good, is possible to know but not possible to express. Even though the knowledge of God is accompanied by all the difficulties associated with the process of intellectual and ethical improvement, and although what one comes to know in this process is ultimately impossible to express in human language, gaining knowledge of God and becoming like Him is nevertheless the goal of all Platonic philosophy. Jewish and Christian thinkers working at this time came to similar conclusions. These include Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, who are themselves sometimes deemed Middle-Platonic philosophers. Unlike their pagan colleagues, they believed that man’s process of coming to know God would go on forever. They thought that the finite human mind would never be able to contain the infinite, and they held that the essence and power of God are indeed infinite. The goal of this article is to expose the relationship between the infinity and the unknowability of God, and at the same time to point out the differences in the theses put forward on this question by pagan Middle Platonists and those who accepted Judeo-Christian revelation.
Więź, 2019
"VORREI UNA CHIESA DIVERSA, MA NON SENZA LA CHIESA - L'INTERVISTA DI DAMIAN MRUGALSKI OP A GIANNI... more "VORREI UNA CHIESA DIVERSA, MA NON SENZA LA CHIESA - L'INTERVISTA DI DAMIAN MRUGALSKI OP A GIANNI VATTIMO".
- Mrugalski: "Che cosa è la Chiesa per lei?
- Vattimo: "È la comunità di quelli che hanno letto il Vangelo e cercano di prenderlo come modello, ovvero prendono sul serio il messaggio di Cristo. Però sono contro certe visioni della Chiesa più gerarchiche, più strutturate o più temporali. In ogni modo non sarei per: “Dio sì, la Chiesa no”. Anzi è più facile dire Chiesa sì Dio no, perché Dio non so dov’è e qual è. Ma la Chiesa mi parla di Lui. Poi, sono convinto che posso autenticare ogni esistenza solo in rapporto con gli altri, con il prossimo. In realtà io senza la Chiesa non posso vivere, anche se questa Chiesa gerarchica mi crea problemi".
- Mrugalski: "Ma per i cattolici la Chiesa non solo trasmette il messaggio, ma anche gestisce i sacramenti, ovvero è lo strumento della grazia di Dio. Lei invece in molti dei suoi scritti si concentra solo sul messaggio dell’amore, criticando, o forse anche rifiutando, tutto ciò che è legato all’amministrazione della grazia e al governo nella Chiesa".
- Vattimo: "È vero che tutto quello che contrasta con messaggio dell’amore non mi va bene. Se per esempio il potere pontificio contrasta con comandamento dell’amore, al diavolo il potere pontificio. Sono convinto che non devo espungere dal Vangelo tutto ciò che non mi piace, però ho un principio critico nel Vangelo stesso. Se c’è una cosa essenziale è quella, poi tutte le altre se concordano con questa le accolgo. Si può dire che io faccio un discorso di scelta autonoma, però non senza ragione, cioè leggo la Tradizione e vedo anche il patrimonio dei santi. Però quali sono i santi che sono davvero più santi? Mica quelli che hanno fatto le crociate. Perché? Perché questo non concorda con il comandamento dell’amore che trovo nel Vangelo. Però, non ho mai potuto essere protestante, perché non mi sono mai sognato della sola Scrittura.
- Mrugalski: "Perché?"
- Vattimo: "Perché la sola Scrittura non sta da sola. Io sono profondamente cattolico. Le due fonti della rivelazione sono per me la Scrittura e la Tradizione".
Więź, 2019
Czy postmodernistyczny pluralizm jest zagrożeniem i oznaką czasów ostatecznych, jak sugeruje Guar... more Czy postmodernistyczny pluralizm jest zagrożeniem i oznaką czasów ostatecznych, jak sugeruje Guardini, czy może szansą i nową duszpasterską perspektywą dla Kościoła? Czy ów pluralizm musi zakładać odrzucenie metafizyki i rezygnację z dogmatów wyrażonych w języku metafizycznym, czy też może raczej – nie rezygnując z głównych prawd wiary – budzić nową wrażliwość, zwracającą uwagę na niepowtarzalny charakter jednostek składających się na Kościół oraz na działającą w nich łaskę, zawsze nową i równie niepowtarzalną? Z pewnością jednak nie możemy dzisiaj, jak to niegdyś czynił Leszek Kołakowski, drwić z pojęcia „postmodernizmu”. W postmodernistycznym pluralizmie myślenia, mówienia i działania jesteśmy zanurzeni. Wystarczy włączyć dowolny telewizyjny kanał informacyjny. Być może w niektórych z nich przebija jeszcze nostalgia za wielką „metanarracją” potrafiącą scalić i uporządkować w jedną spójną opowieść liczne „małe narracje”, które niestety nie zawsze w pokojowy sposób chcą ze sobą koegzystować. A może jednak – zamiast tęsknić za czymś nierealnym – warto zastanowić się, jaką rolę mogą odegrać chrześcijanie w dobie radykalnego pluralizmu? Nie jest to pytanie nowe, bo zmagali się z nim również nasi bracia z pierwszych wieków chrześcijaństwa, którzy w pluralistycznym Imperium Rzymskim pragnęli głosić (i z sukcesem głosili) Dobrą Nowinę, mającą przecież charakter uniwersalny. Czy jednak – jak zapytuje Vattimo – musi być ona związana z metafizyczną strukturą, która zawsze jest uwarunkowana historycznie?
Verbum Vitae, 2019
ETERNAL AND TIMELESS CREATION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOURCES OF ORIGEN’S CONCEPT OF GENERATIO AETERNA... more ETERNAL AND TIMELESS CREATION: THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOURCES OF ORIGEN’S CONCEPT OF GENERATIO AETERNA.
"Timaeus", a dialogue of Plato regarded by scholars as “the Platonists’ Bible”, was interpreted allegorically even in the time of the Old Academy (4th century BCE). In the Hellenistic period (1st-3rd centuries CE), especially among the philosophers known as Middle Platonists, there was great debate over the theses that appear in it. The main question was whether the world was created in time or ab aeterno, and most of the Middle Platonic philosophers believed that the world must be eternal. By the first century CE, this discussion had also been joined by Jewish and Christian Platonists such as Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. In their opinion, God, because he is unchanging but at the same time good, must not have started to operate only at the moment of the creation of the world, but before. Yet the Scriptures state that the world began to exist at a particular point in time. Therefore, Christian Platonists postulated the eternal generation or production of the world of ideas (kosmos noetos), which, since it is the world of God’s thoughts, exists ab aeterno in the Divine Logos. The concept of generatio aeterna (that is, the eternal generation of the Son by the Father), which we find in Origen’s works, is related to this ongoing discussion about the eternal nature of the world. This article aims to present the facets of this ancient debate while emphasizing the links between the arguments advanced by the Middle Platonists and those found in the various hypotheses of Origen.
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Papers by Damian Mrugalski
The article posits that Augustine may have adopted the doctrine of the infinity of God directly from Origen, since he had access to many of his works translated into Latin, or through Novatian and Hilary of Poitiers, as they were both influenced by Origen's thought .
Such early critiques of anthropomorphism gave impetus to later, more in-depth reflections on how, or even whether, humans might gain knowledge of God. Thus was born apophatic theology, which, according to the meaning of the Greek word ἀπόφασις, seeks to gain insight into God (divinity) through negation, that is, by expressing what God is not rather than what he is. We find such a theology already in the doctrines of Greek philosophers, and later in the works of Jewish and Christian thinkers and mystics of the first centuries AD. Some of them denied even any possibility of knowing the essence of God, or of adequately speaking about Him. Over time, however, negative theology gave place to cataphatic, or positive, theology.
In the 20th century, there was a dispute between Protestant and Catholic scholars over the Hellenisation of Christianity, or rather the evaluation of the phenomenon of Hellenisation. According to Adolf von Harnack, Hellenisation destroyed or deformed the essence of Christianity. According to Joseph Ratzinger, on the contrary: the encounter between biblical thought and Greek philosophy helped to express the essence of Christianity adequately. Ratzinger has devoted many works to the polemic against Harnack’s thesis, pointing out that Hellenisation took place, not only after the death and resurrection of Jesus, but much earlier. However, Ratzinger does not cite many examples and arguments as confirmation of his thesis. This article is a kind of supplement to Ratzinger’s thesis. Its author shows how certain theoretical solutions arose within Hellenistic Judaism, i.e. in the time before the birth of Jesus, and how these were then used by Christians in their Christological argumentation. It was the philosophical interpretation of the Pentateuch made by Philo of Alexandria, but which also appears in the Bible itself (especially in the Sapiential Books), that helped the Fathers of the Church to perceive a pre-existent Logos in the theophanies of the Old Testament. This philosophical interpretation also gave rise to the concept of gaeneratio aeterna, i.e. the argument in favour of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father.
We also invite authors of articles to examine the interaction and circulation of ideas and concepts present in Greco-Roman religion and philosophy as well as those used by authors of the Bible books and Christian theologians. Polemics with contemporary researchers who positively or negatively evaluate the influence of Hellenization on the development of Jewish and Christian theology are also welcome. The subject matter of the volume is therefore very wide, but it should be remembered that the respective articles should in some way be related to one of the three thematic sections of which each volume of the Verbum Vitae journal consists: 1. The Old Testament, 2. The New Testament, 3. The Fathers of the Church and Theology.
The Verbum Vitae journal is currently one of the three highest-scoring theological journals in Poland. In a new evaluation by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland (09.02.2021), our journal received 100 points. Moreover, the Verbum Vitae journal is present in SCOPUS, ATLA and EBSCO databases. The presence in the last two databases, in full text form, makes every text published in our journal available in PDF format in every university library in the world. In this way, the Verbum Vitae is an effective place to participate in the international academic debate.
In his Metaphysics, Aristotle puts forward the thesis that the infinite is unknowable. In fact, the finite human intellect is unable to embrace any infinite form. Anyway, such an infinite form does not exist according to the Stagirite. The infinite can only exist in potency, not in act. In his Physics, on the other hand, the philosopher states that “nothing is perfect unless it has an end”. The Fathers of the Church struggled with these and similar theses. Considering God as an infinite being, they also had to answer the question whether his essence is knowable for the human intellect. For Scripture says that “we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). The Greek Fathers’ answer, however, was negative. Because of its infinity, the essence of God cannot be fully comprehended, not even by the souls of saved men. Thomas Aquinas, although he also considered that the essence and power of God is infinite, in contrast to Aristotle, and thus impossible to fully comprehend, postulates that saved men will be able to see the essence of God – this is what eschatological visio beatifica is all about. Of course, this cannot be achieved without the help of God, who by his grace will enable the created human intellects to do what exceeds their natural abilities. It transpires, however, that this eschatological knowledge of the essence of God will never be complete. The aim of this article is to present two different theological approaches related to the issue of the eschatological unknowability of God’s essence by saved men. The first one is the position of Gregory of Nyssa, who assumes the unknowability of the essence of God, although he does not reject the infinite increase in the knowledge of God by man. The second is the position of Thomas Aquinas, who assumes the knowability of the essence of God, but states that it can never be a complete comprehension. These two positions, although they seem to be very different, are similar and convergent in many respects.
In the times preceding the emergence of Neo-Platonism (1st–3rd century BC), the philosophers now known as Middle Platonists elaborated an extensive reflection on the possibility of knowing God, and the ways that could lead to acquiring knowledge about the transcendent. According to Plato, “To discover the Maker and Father of this Universe were a task indeed; and having discovered Him, to declare Him unto all men were a thing impossible” (PLATO, Timaeus 28c). The Middle Platonists believed that God, whom they sometimes identified with the Platonic One and Good, is possible to know but not possible to express. Even though the knowledge of God is accompanied by all the difficulties associated with the process of intellectual and ethical improvement, and although what one comes to know in this process is ultimately impossible to express in human language, gaining knowledge of God and becoming like Him is nevertheless the goal of all Platonic philosophy. Jewish and Christian thinkers working at this time came to similar conclusions. These include Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, who are themselves sometimes deemed Middle-Platonic philosophers. Unlike their pagan colleagues, they believed that man’s process of coming to know God would go on forever. They thought that the finite human mind would never be able to contain the infinite, and they held that the essence and power of God are indeed infinite. The goal of this article is to expose the relationship between the infinity and the unknowability of God, and at the same time to point out the differences in the theses put forward on this question by pagan Middle Platonists and those who accepted Judeo-Christian revelation.
- Mrugalski: "Che cosa è la Chiesa per lei?
- Vattimo: "È la comunità di quelli che hanno letto il Vangelo e cercano di prenderlo come modello, ovvero prendono sul serio il messaggio di Cristo. Però sono contro certe visioni della Chiesa più gerarchiche, più strutturate o più temporali. In ogni modo non sarei per: “Dio sì, la Chiesa no”. Anzi è più facile dire Chiesa sì Dio no, perché Dio non so dov’è e qual è. Ma la Chiesa mi parla di Lui. Poi, sono convinto che posso autenticare ogni esistenza solo in rapporto con gli altri, con il prossimo. In realtà io senza la Chiesa non posso vivere, anche se questa Chiesa gerarchica mi crea problemi".
- Mrugalski: "Ma per i cattolici la Chiesa non solo trasmette il messaggio, ma anche gestisce i sacramenti, ovvero è lo strumento della grazia di Dio. Lei invece in molti dei suoi scritti si concentra solo sul messaggio dell’amore, criticando, o forse anche rifiutando, tutto ciò che è legato all’amministrazione della grazia e al governo nella Chiesa".
- Vattimo: "È vero che tutto quello che contrasta con messaggio dell’amore non mi va bene. Se per esempio il potere pontificio contrasta con comandamento dell’amore, al diavolo il potere pontificio. Sono convinto che non devo espungere dal Vangelo tutto ciò che non mi piace, però ho un principio critico nel Vangelo stesso. Se c’è una cosa essenziale è quella, poi tutte le altre se concordano con questa le accolgo. Si può dire che io faccio un discorso di scelta autonoma, però non senza ragione, cioè leggo la Tradizione e vedo anche il patrimonio dei santi. Però quali sono i santi che sono davvero più santi? Mica quelli che hanno fatto le crociate. Perché? Perché questo non concorda con il comandamento dell’amore che trovo nel Vangelo. Però, non ho mai potuto essere protestante, perché non mi sono mai sognato della sola Scrittura.
- Mrugalski: "Perché?"
- Vattimo: "Perché la sola Scrittura non sta da sola. Io sono profondamente cattolico. Le due fonti della rivelazione sono per me la Scrittura e la Tradizione".
"Timaeus", a dialogue of Plato regarded by scholars as “the Platonists’ Bible”, was interpreted allegorically even in the time of the Old Academy (4th century BCE). In the Hellenistic period (1st-3rd centuries CE), especially among the philosophers known as Middle Platonists, there was great debate over the theses that appear in it. The main question was whether the world was created in time or ab aeterno, and most of the Middle Platonic philosophers believed that the world must be eternal. By the first century CE, this discussion had also been joined by Jewish and Christian Platonists such as Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. In their opinion, God, because he is unchanging but at the same time good, must not have started to operate only at the moment of the creation of the world, but before. Yet the Scriptures state that the world began to exist at a particular point in time. Therefore, Christian Platonists postulated the eternal generation or production of the world of ideas (kosmos noetos), which, since it is the world of God’s thoughts, exists ab aeterno in the Divine Logos. The concept of generatio aeterna (that is, the eternal generation of the Son by the Father), which we find in Origen’s works, is related to this ongoing discussion about the eternal nature of the world. This article aims to present the facets of this ancient debate while emphasizing the links between the arguments advanced by the Middle Platonists and those found in the various hypotheses of Origen.