5 week online class via Zoom

Wednesdays, July 17 - August 21, 2024
7-9 pm Eastern (NYC) time
$175 Paid Patreon Members / $190 General Admission

* Discount code for the instructor’s book Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus will be emailed to students before class begins

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will be recorded for those who cannot attend live

Theurgy was a ritual practice developed by Platonists in the 3^rd to 6^th centuries C.E. that allowed anyone, from the common person to the philosopher, to become an Incarnation of God. Because this competed with the Christian belief that Incarnation was limited to only one person, Jesus Christ, theurgy was attacked by the Imperial Church. To perform a theurgic ritual was made a crime punishable by death according to the Theodosian Code in 356 C.E.

Theurgic practices, therefore, went underground and survived in esoteric and magical schools where they remained unknown to the scholarly world until the 20^th century. After initially disparaging theurgy as a misguided and superstitious form of Platonism, scholars more sympathetic to theurgy began to interpret it as a form of “Platonic dualism.” Theurgy was seen as a way to ascend out of the body and the material world to reach the spiritual realm.

Many scholars used this dualist framework to explain theurgy and continue to do so today. Religious studies professor Greg Shaw argues that this is a profound misreading of theurgy; that in order to understand it, we need to see theurgy as a non-dual religious practice. By juxtaposing the remarkable similarities between tantric and theurgical practices and beliefs, it becomes clear that theurgy is not a dualist practice that denies the body. Theurgy is a form of Hellenic Tantra, a non-dual religious practice that fully embraces the body and materiality, and this is what allowed theurgists to become Incarnations of the Gods.

Over five weeks, we will explore Hellenic Tantra by reading assigned chapters from Professor Shaw’s new book Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus, and discussing the critical issues presented. This course will include short introductory lectures at the start of each class, followed by discussion. It is highly recommended that students buy the book (which will be available at a discounted price), so they will be able to follow the direction of the course and develop questions and comments on our readings.

Gregory Shaw is Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, Massachusetts. He is the author of Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus, Penn State Press, 1995; 2nd edition, Angelico Press, 2014, Practicing Gnosis: Ritual, Magic, Theurgy and Liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and Other Ancient Literature --- Essays in Honor of Birger A. Pearson, Leiden, Brill, 2013 (with April DeConick and John Turner), Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus, Angelico Press, 2024, and several articles on the later Platonists, Gnostics and Hermeticists.

Images: Nicholas Roerich: Zarathustra and The Prophet Muhammad on Mount Hira