"Platonism" in Julia Lamm (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), 56-73 (original) (raw)

For anyone reflecting seriously on the tradition of Christian mysticism in the medieval West, it is hard not to notice the hold that Platonism has exercised on that tradition throughout much, if not all, of the period. Upon closer inspection, it appears there are actually two divergent, be it equally central ways-which I shall call below the inherent and the forensic-in which Platonism has left a lasting imprint on the Christian mystical tradition. The aim of this particular essay on Platonism, which for me will include the wider Platonic influence, is first of all to survey and analyze this twofold impact of Platonism, dwelling on the different approaches to the mystical quest which it yields.