The last major believer in the existence of this perennial wisdom who attempted, by reviving the ideas of Pletho and Ficino, to prevent the widening division between science and religion and the growing rupture within the Church as the Protestant movement expanded was Agostino Steuco, philosopher and head of the great Vatican Library. His efforts failed. Soon afterwards an anti-Platonic movement emerged within the Catholic Church that moved in a completely different direction, treating Plato and the paganism at the roots of Platonic philosophy as the father of heresies and mystical movements throughout Christian history. We can see something comparable in our own mystical world, in what happened to Husayn Mansur al-Hallaj and to Suhrawardi and others like him. It is striking that Suhrawardi believed the Iranian mystical tradition itself belonged to the same perennial wisdom followed by Zoroaster and by the Platonists of history.

To see the rest of the story, images and details, you can follow the link below. To see the first and second parts of this series, you can use the links shared yesterday or visit the “Genealogy of Perennial Wisdom” playlist on the YouTube channel. For a fuller introduction to the central ideas of Platonic philosophy, you can also see the video I will pin to the channel under the title “The Liberating Power of Platonic Philosophy in the Modern World.”

With thanks and respect,
Aydin Areta