Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus

Gregory Shaw is a scholar of Neoplatonism, and this academic book, published by Pennsylvania State University Press, examines the theurgic ritual philosophy of Iamblichus, the late antique Neoplatonist who argued that ritual practice, not philosophical contemplation alone, was necessary for the soul's ascent, working from Iamblichus's surviving texts and the wider Neoplatonist tradition responding to him. Its strength is taking Iamblichus's ritual theory seriously as coherent philosophy rather than dismissing it as a decline from more rationalist earlier Platonism, a reading that shifted later scholarly assessment of theurgy. Its limit is that it is a specialized study of one specific late antique philosopher's system, assuming background in Neoplatonist philosophy rather than introducing the tradition from a beginner's starting point.