by Jeff Gillette
Jeff Gillette was a graduate student at the Duke University Divinity School in 1985, one of the most thoughtful voices on net.religion.christian during the period. In this post, written amid a wider discussion of prayer and its nature, he sets aside the ongoing arguments to offer something quieter: a passage from Iamblichus, the fourth-century Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher, on the three stages of prayer and their divine fruits. The passage is stunning — three kinds of approach to the divine, three kinds of gift returned — and Gillette’s question at the end is one the archive carries into every tradition: is prayer to God and prayer to Zeus the same prayer, or not?
Iamblichus (c. 245–325 CE) was a student of Porphyry and a systematizer of Neoplatonist theurgy. His “De Mysteriis” (On the Mysteries), from which this passage is taken, is the foundational text of Neoplatonist religious practice. The work was written as a defense of theurgy — the idea that ritual and prayer could achieve genuine union with the divine — against the skepticism of Porphyry. Iamblichus died around 325 CE, the same year as the Council of Nicaea.
As recent interest has turned to the subject of prayer, let me offer for consideration the explanation put forth by Iamblichus, a fourth-century theologian:
I therefore affirm that the first kind of prayer is that which brings [God and man] together, since it brings about the association with the divine and gives us the knowledge thereof. The second establishes a bond of fellowship founded upon likemindedness and calls down gifts sent by the gods, which arrive before we can ask for them and perfect our efforts even without our knowledge. The third and most perfect form finally seals the secret union, which hands over every decision privately to the gods and leaves our souls completely at rest in them.
In these three stages, which embrace all that is divine, prayers gain for us harmonious friendship of the gods and also a threefold advantage from the gods: the first has to do with illumination, the second with fellowship in a common task, the third with the state of being filled with the [divine] fire [i.e. Spirit]. …
No sacral act can be effective without the supplication of prayer. Steady continuance in prayer nourishes our mind, enlarges the soul for the reception of the gods, opens up to men the realm of the gods, accustoms us to the splendor of the divine light, and gradually perfects in us [our] union with the gods, until at last it leads us back to the supreme heights. Our mode of thinking is drawn gently aloft and implants in us the spirit of the gods; it awakens confidence, fellowship, and undying friendship [with them]; it increases the longing for God; it inflames in us whatever is divine within the soul; it banishes all opposition from the soul … it creates good hope and trust in the light. In brief, it gives to those who engage in it intercourse with the gods.
Iamblichus’ words have a familiar ring to them. Unless I am mistaken, most of his themes find their counterpart in sermons I heard growing up in a fairly conservative church in the midst of the “Bible belt”, USA. The question that Iamblichus raises for me is this: is there a uniquely Christian (or Judeo-Christian) understanding of prayer, or is my prayer to Jesus and Iamblichus’ prayer to Zeus identical in all respects except for the deity addressed?
Colophon
Written by Jeff Gillette ([email protected], Duke University Divinity School), 12 March 1985. Posted to net.religion.christian. Message-ID: [email protected].
The passage from Iamblichus is drawn from De Mysteriis (On the Mysteries), written c. 280–305 CE. Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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