Theory and Theurgy; or, How Ficino Wished to Dispatch the Averroist Intellect through Platonic Good Works

In this chapter, I argue that during the 1490s Marsilio Ficino devoted particular attention to Iamblichus’s Reply to Porphyry’s Letter to Anebo, for in this text he found indicated the best course of action to stem the rising tides of religious iconoclasm and philosophical monopsychism, represented by, respectively, the pure heart of the reforming zealots – the purists in devotion – and the one intellect of the Averroist Aristotelians – the purists in contemplation. Indeed, Iamblichus appeared to Ficino as better suited to respond to this particular situation than Plotinus, for, unlike Plotinus, Iamblichus believed that the human soul was fully descended and that therefore the only way for it to regain unity with God was by undergoing rituals of theurgic catharsis.