Platonik Teoloji

Let us loosen, I beseech you, oh heavenly souls longing for a heavenly homeland, let us loosen as soon as possible the chains of earthly fetters, so that, lifted up on Platonic wings and with God as our leader, we may fly more freely to the ethereal seat, where we shall immediately and happily contemplate the excellence of our race. Beyond this sluggish mass of bodies there exists some effective quality and power. But above quality there exists a certain more excellent form. In that form the ancient theologians placed the seat of the rational soul. Above the rational soul exists the angelic mind, which is not only indivisible but also immutable. Finally, over the eye of this mind, which desires and captures the light of truth, the divine sun itself presides. Therefore, when we have ascended to this point, we shall compare these five ranks of all things: the mass of the body, quality, soul, angel, and God. Since the genus of the rational soul holds the middle rank among these steps, it appears as the bond of all nature: it rules qualities and bodies; it joins itself to the angel and to God. We shall show that it is first indissoluble, while it connects the ranks of nature; most excellent, while it presides over the machine of the world; and most blessed, while it flows into divine things.