N.'s rich, thoughtful and thought-provoking study explores the interrelation of philosophy and religion in Plato, focusing in particular on the Symposium, Phaedo, Phaedrus and Timaeus. N. convincingly argues that the ontology, epistemology and psychology of these dialogues have an important theological dimension and cannot be understood properly if this dimension is not recognised. On N.'s account, prominent among the dramatis personae of Plato's theology we find not only gods but also the Forms as well as human souls, or at least their rational parts (with the exception of the Symposium, where the human soul is mortal). Indeed, it is the encounter between rational human souls and Forms that is the focal point of N.'s book and, on her view, of Plato's theological reflections. In contemplating the Forms (and, in the Timaeus, also the physical cosmos), the philosopher experiences an epiphany of a class of divinities. N. perceptively demonstrates how Plato creatively drew on a range of traditional and current religious models – above all, poetic narratives of epiphany and the conceptual schemes of mystery initiations – to frame the philosopher's experience as epiphanic. Throughout, N. expounds clearly and generously: the book is accessible to non-expert and Greek-less readers, while also having much to say to specialists.
The introduction lays out pertinent features of Plato's writings in their historical context, of Greek religion and of the scholarly landscape. N. sometimes paints here with broad brush strokes, and some expert readers may wish for finer distinctions at points, but the introduction sets the stage for the ensuing inquiry effectively and accessibly. In the first chapter, drawing on dialogues she will later examine as well as on the Republic, N. makes a strong case for the view that the Forms constitute the highest divinities in Plato's theological schemes and that, in the Republic, the Form of the Good constitutes the highest divinity among the Forms. She plausibly concludes (p. 55) that scholars are wrong to neglect ‘divine’ when supplying that familiar catalogue of essential properties of all Forms (incorporeal, intelligible, eternal, imperishable etc.). Still, one might ask how we would best understand this essential property of Forms in relation to other Form properties. N. seems to take it that the Form's divinity is some further feature that it possesses, numerically distinct from and on a par with its other properties. Indeed, she even suggests that, while the philosopher may come to know the ‘essence’ of a Form, ‘he cannot fully comprehend its divinity’ (p. 31, cf. pp. 34, 55, 101). I wonder if we could alternatively think of a Form's divinity as a higher-order property that it possesses (or a status it is accorded) just in so far as it possesses all the other properties that are essential to all Forms and perhaps also those properties that are distinctive to it. On this view, the divinity of Beauty would not be some further feature of this Form, numerically distinct from its essential Form properties (incorporeal, eternal etc.) and its distinctive essence. Compare, for example, how a shirt is ‘colourful’ just in so far as it is, say, pink, yellow and blue.
The next four chapters examine in turn the Symposium, Phaedo, Phaedrus and Timaeus. In each case N. approaches the dialogue in question as a unified philosophical and literary whole, and examines how Plato envisages the encounter between the philosophical soul and the divine Forms, how he situates this encounter within a broader conception of the nature, origin and future of the soul (what N. calls ‘the story of the soul’) and how, in order to achieve these ends, he draws on and modifies various religious concepts and imagery. Thus, in the Symposium Plato makes precise use of the grades of initiation in the Eleusinian mysteries to frame the erotic ascent of the mortal philosophical soul as one culminating in an advanced initiation (epopteia) and an epiphany of the Form of Beauty. In the Phaedo, the soul is now itself akin to the divine Forms, and it is especially on Orphic concepts of ‘purification’ and ‘release’ that Plato draws to develop his novel notion of salvation: it is the philosophical soul that can be released from bodily incarnations, and the Forms are the divinities among whom it will dwell. In this chapter N.'s account depends at points on an early dating of certain purportedly Orphic notions, including notably an anthropogony according to which humans descend from the Titans who devoured Dionysus. She notes in passing scholars sceptical of this dating (pp. 142–3 n. 56). To my mind, this scepticism (defended most systematically by R.G. Edmonds in Redefining Ancient Orphism [2013]) is weighty. A more flexible approach could perhaps consider how Plato's relation to Orphic phenomena may be construed differently from the perspective of different historical views about those phenomena themselves.
Turning to the Phaedrus, N. examines how Plato locates preincarnate human souls as lesser companions of the souls of gods, by following whom they enjoy a (lesser) epiphany of the Forms. On earth, the incarnate philosophical soul undergoes further epiphanies of Forms by means of recollection and, inspired with erotic divine madness, can restore itself to its previous, whole state. I am uncertain about N.'s argument for the view that, in the Symposium and Phaedrus, Eros should be interpreted, not as an actual god that influences our souls, but only as the erotic aspect of souls (pp. 104–7, 200–2). N. proceeds to this conclusion rather swiftly from the observation that Plato describes Eros in mythical terms and that, therefore, not all aspects of his portrayals of Eros can be taken at face value.
Finally, N. explores the Timaeus, which she takes to present the fullest expression of Plato's theological philosophy (pp. 40–1, 264–5). Rational human souls are now integrated into a grand cosmological, theological and teleological system, featuring also the Demiurge, the cosmos itself, star gods and ancillary gods. By mastering astronomy and then philosophy, the rational human soul can align its motions with those of the cosmic soul and, thereby, become like god and return to its native star. Even if this is our ultimate hope, N. also defends the appealing idea that human souls, when incarnated in human bodies, make an important contribution towards perfecting the cosmos, since they alone are able to grasp its beauty on a sensory (and not merely intellectual) level (pp. 237–44). In fact, if in previous works Plato operated with an entirely intellectual model of epiphany (the Forms appear only to the mind), he now also integrates a more traditional model, since the god who is the physical cosmos appears also to our eyes (pp. 12, 218, 244). Indeed, the motions of the star gods constitute a celestial choric dance (40c), and the cosmos as a whole is a ‘sacred image/statue (agalma) of the eternal gods’ (37c). N. observes that Plato inverts traditional choreia, in so far as the dancers (the star gods) are divine rather than mortal celebrants (pp. 258–9). I wonder if we might also identify a kind of inversion in Plato's description of the cosmos as a sacred image of gods. As N. observes, the cosmos is ‘a mobile statue’ (p. 261). If we accept her convincing defence (pp. 259–60) of the view that ‘the eternal gods’ of which the cosmos is a sacred image are Forms (notably, the eternal Form of Living Being: 30d–31a, 37c–d), then we again have an inversion: the statue is itself mobile and ensouled, while the model is entirely still and unchanging.
Any single-volume study of philosophy and religion in Plato is bound to be selective. Whatever N. loses in terms of coverage or range by focusing on four dialogues, she more than makes up for in her ability to embed her analysis of the theological aspects of Plato's reflections in the specific dialectical and dramatic contexts in which those reflections are developed. This approach also enables N. to tell an engaging and plausible story about how different aspects of Plato's theological thinking remain constant or, conversely, alter from one dialogue to another, and across different dramatic contexts and types of discourse (argumentative, mythical, rhetorical, cosmological etc.). Throughout, N. advances valuable interpretative suggestions and observations to which the brief outlines sketched above scarcely do justice. And throughout, her discussions are anchored in searching contemplation both of Plato's dialogues and of the phenomena of Greek religion. This is a book to which I am sure I will return time and again.
