At first sight, while taking into account the harmony of sensible reality, relation would seem to be a fundamental category of Plotinian thought. However, when one considers the references within the Enneades to relation, one discovers that this way of being should remain excluded from the supersensible realm and that, in last analysis, it only represents a weak surrogate within the sensible world for the unity proper to intelligible reality. The connection between the hypostases and between them and sensitive reality (...) cannot be explained by means of relation. (shrink)

Just after my return from a symposium at the University of Navarre on the dialogue between faith and culture in Christian antiquity, I had the opportunity to read Peroli's book. His approach is strikingly in accord with many of the claims made at Navarre. The overall approach of his study may be summed up with the following words: early Christian thought effected an authentic inculturation, [[sic]] not just by expressing the faith in the dominant philosophical categories of the time, but (...) by transforming those very categories in order to rationally express Christian belief. This is precisely the core achievement of the philosophical anthropology of Gregory of Nissa. St. Gregory actively fed upon neo-Platonism. He made use of Platonic/neo-platonic thought in order to demonstrate the rationality of Christian faith, even in those areas of reflection where the faith might seem most distant from the reigning philosophical tenets. (shrink)