Brian Hines and Return to the One and Plotinus and spirituality

Brian Hines

Bill Long 11/19/04

Plotinus for the 21st Century

In 1979, when I was pursuing my doctorate in Early Christianity at Brown University, my closest graduate school friend was John Peter Kenney. John was a Catholic from Lawrence, MA, a brilliant and articulate thinker whose love for Augustine was gradually leading him to take full cognizance of the Neoplatonic tradition in philosophy. So he turned to the shadowy world of the Middle Platonists but, even more, to the work of Plotinus. In great elation one day John told me that he had just received a fellowship to study at the University of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax was where A.H. Armstrong, known as "Hillary" to his friends, the greatest living scholar of Plotinus, held forth.

I knew of Armstrong because John would constantly regale me with his insights on the importance of the "apophatic" tradition in Christian theology (i.e., "negative theology"), which he thought needed recapturing in our day. John has never lost his love for Plotinus; his 1991 book on Mystical Monotheism, in addition to more recent works on Augustine, solidifies his own reputation as a leading interpreter of this neglected tradition in Christian theology.

Introducing Brian Hines

Thus, I was delighted to begin to read Brian Hines' new book, Return to the One, a popular exposition of that most dense philosophical treatise of all, Plotinus' Enneads. I had dipped into the Enneads in graduate school, only to flee quickly back to the more congenial or familiar terrain of Origen or Clement or Augustine, but now Brian Hines has given us a serious book accessible to laymen and scholars alike that argues for the timeliness (and timelessness) of Plotinus' ideas in our day. A full review of this startlingly accessible and thoughtful work is not possible here. I will only focus on three points: (1) breaking down the barrier between scholar and mystic; (2) the "spirit" of Plotinus; and (3) The Nature of Plotinian Language.

Studying Plotinus

The first hurdle that anyone writing a book on Plotinus has to surmount is his or her "angle" on the subject. Most Western/university scholarship focuses on the "ideas" of Plotinus, trying to explicate the indebtedness to the Platonic tradition with an awareness of the way that Plotinus is using that tradition for his mystical or theological purposes. Though scholars recognize the fact that Plotinus speaks of union with or return to "the One," they usually take it as their task to explicate the conceptual background to the concept, maintaining a polite academic distance from the thing described (the "One").

Hines, though fully conversant with English-language scholarship on Plotinus, doensn't think that is good enough. Philosophy for ancient philosophers (including Plotinus) was a way of life, a quest for truth. That same passion and discipline ought to actuate the student today. In addition, this "One" is accessible to all, even if the language describing the means of access is convoluted. Thus, Hines takes it as his task to explicate the language with homey illustrations and awareness of how life is actually lived by people in the 21st century.

The Plotinian "Spirit"

Hines is quite aware that because Plotinus' work, dense as it is, is about the Return of the Soul from its discursive duplicity to the One, that it is more important to capture the "spirit" of the whole than necessarily to exposit in depth any particular concept. He uses a particularly apt metaphor of the jigsaw puzzle and the tabletop (p.34) to explain this idea. So many individual concepts (the pieces of the puzzle) are strewn around. We patiently try to fit them together, but we realize that under the jigsaw puzzle lies the (unitary) table top. "Delve only a tiny distance, a fraction of an inch for a puzzle, a dimensionless shift in consciousness for the One, and the simple substance of the foundation is reached (Ibid.)." Thus, while not discouraging the mastery of individual concepts, Hines points us to the tapestry of the whole, the inclination of the heart to recognize the One lying beneath appearances, that should be our lure.

Language

His second point bridges us to the third: the use of language to communicate the incommunicable. It is here that the "system" of Plotinus broke down for me 25 years ago and still continues to leave me a bit dry. In order to conceptualize this One, the "fall" of the Soul away from the One and the eventual "Return" to the One, Plotinus (and Hines) need to use highly metaphorical language. Since we literally don't fall down and we literally don't physically move to a place of union or absorption with the One, we are bound by the prison/prism of language to capture what we are about. But, the language of falling away and returning, of "stripping off" and reclothing, of seeking the "simple, single and pure" is langauge that I, who have a bit of ability in abstract thinking, find too abstract for me.

Or, to put it another way, Plotinus' language doesn't seem to "work" for me. I, too, like many people, long for a time of union or acceptance, a love that overflows, a joy that makes the heart skip, a deep calm that rises above the vicissitudes of daily life. But what is the language that captures the heart's inclination and that enables this "journey" (if that is even the right term) to take place? Hines is to be commended for trying to make this language of Plotinus accessible to us, though I find myself ending up "academicizing" the language because it might not resonate with me in my quest. This isn't a problem that Hines creates; it is one that he, and every expositor of Plotinus, needs to overcome.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, what gave me most pleasure with this book was the fact that I know and respect Brian very much. We meet together monthly for a discussion group in Salem, OR. I have seen his passion for Plotinus grow and mature over the last seven years I have known him and his wife Laurel. He brings an optimistic, inquiring, thoughtful spirit to life which is amply reflected in this volume. One would wish for wide(r) circulation of Return to the One--as a good introductory volume in a course on Ancient or Medieval philosophy or mysticism. Readers and seekers won't be disappointed.