Interiority and Trascendence. From Antiquity to Early Christianity

Interiority is an underlying theme of the Neo-Platonic tradition. Since Plotinus, the Neo-Platonic tradition has indeed ascribed to interiority an absolutely central role in the path that man must follow in order to reach the ultimate goal of his existence. For in the Neo-Platonic view, the divine Principles of reality do not exist only in themselves, separate or transcendent from the whole universe, but they are at the same time actively present in us, making possible the exercise of our cognitive activities. The aim of this paper is to examine the reception and at the same time the profound transformation of this central theme of the Neo-Platonic tradition by fourth-century Greek theology. By this we mean to show how, through the confrontation with the philosophy of its time carried out by fourth-century Greek theology, the latter was able to place at the centre of its reflection the authentically Christian question of man’s insufficiency before himself, and was able to do so with a radicality and intensity unknown to the previous philosophical culture, thus endowing its spiritual theology with the strength and appeal that it continued to exert in the subsequent tradition.