Book contents
- Participation in the Divine
- Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism
- Participation in the Divine
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Lord Is One
- 2 The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato
- 3 Origen on Participation
- 4 Forms, Intellects, and Angels
- 5 Participation in the Divine in Gregory of Nyssa
- 6 Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind
- 7 The Principle of Cosmic Unification in the Athenian School of Platonism
- 8 St. Maximus the Confessor on Participation
- 9 Participation in Medieval Platonism
- 10 Participation as God’s Indwelling
- 11 Some Late Medieval Discussions of Participation in the Divine
- 12 Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
- 13 Richard Hooker’s Metaphysics of Divine Participation
- 14 The Transcendence of Holiness
- 15 Ralph Cudworth on Causality and Substantial Forms
- 16 The Romantic Legacy
- 17 Participation Revived and Revised
- Index
- References
12 - Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2024
Book contents
- Participation in the Divine
- Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism
- Participation in the Divine
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Lord Is One
- 2 The Place and Scope of Participation in the Divine in the Thought of Plato
- 3 Origen on Participation
- 4 Forms, Intellects, and Angels
- 5 Participation in the Divine in Gregory of Nyssa
- 6 Augustine’s “Illumination” Theory as the Natural Participation of the Human Mind
- 7 The Principle of Cosmic Unification in the Athenian School of Platonism
- 8 St. Maximus the Confessor on Participation
- 9 Participation in Medieval Platonism
- 10 Participation as God’s Indwelling
- 11 Some Late Medieval Discussions of Participation in the Divine
- 12 Music, Temperance, and Participation in Marsilio Ficino
- 13 Richard Hooker’s Metaphysics of Divine Participation
- 14 The Transcendence of Holiness
- 15 Ralph Cudworth on Causality and Substantial Forms
- 16 The Romantic Legacy
- 17 Participation Revived and Revised
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter will examine some aspects of Marsilio Ficino’s complex engagement with the many-sided but interrelated notions of temperance and music, and with the technical notion of participation (methexis) in the Platonic Ideas, a key, it would appear, both to Platonic metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics (see Cornford 1962 [1935]; see too Spruit 1994–1995),1 and to Christian theology, given that redeemed souls will participate in the glory of the risen Christ on the Day of Judgment having already participated in the gift of divine grace.
In his maturity, Ficino was the undisputed voice of Renaissance Platonism on at least three counts. First, as a devout Christian, an ordained priest, and eventually a canon of Florence’s cathedral, he was wedded to the dream, in part a Patristic dream, of reconciling Christianity with Platonic and pre-Platonic philosophy, and of inaugurating a new Platonic age of gold.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Participation in the DivineA Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era, pp. 272 - 291Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024
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