e to spread the true
philosophy of life, to refute false doctrines, especially those of the
Christians, to ennoble man and draw him to that which is good. That a
mind so free and noble surrendered itself entirely to the philosophy of
Plotinus and to polytheistic mysticism, is a proof that the spirit of
the age works almost irresistibly, and that religious mysticism was the
highest possession of the time. The teaching of Porphyry is
distinguished from that of Plotinus by the fact that it is still more
practical and religious. The aim of philosophy, according to Porphyry,
is the salvation of the soul. The origin and the guilt of evil lie not
in the body, but in the desires of the soul. The strictest asceticism
(abstinence from cohabitation, flesh and wine) is therefore required in
addition to the knowledge of God. During the course of his life Porphyry
warned men more and more decidedly against crude popular beliefs and
immoral cults. "The ordinary notions of the Deity are of such a kind
that it is more godless to share them than to neglect the images of the
gods." But freely as he criticised the popular religions, he did not
wish to give them up. He contended for a pure worship of the many gods,
and recognised the right of every old national religion, and the
religious duties of their professors. His work against the Christians is
not directed against Christ, or what he regarded as the teaching of
Christ, but against the Christians of his day and against the sacred
books which, according to Porphyry, were written by impostors and
ignorant people. In his acute criticism of the genesis or what was
regarded as Christianity in his day, he spoke bitter and earnest truths,
and therefore acquired the name of the fiercest and most formidable of
all the enemies of Christians. His work was destroyed (condemned by an
edict of Theodosius II. and Valentinian, of the year 448), and even the
writings in reply (by Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, Philostorgius,
etc.,) have not been preserved. Yet we possess fragments in Lactantius,
Augustine, Macarius Magnes and others, which attest how thoroughly
Porphyry studied the Christian writings and how great his faculty was
for true historical criticism.

Porphyry marks the transition to the Neoplatonism which subordinated
itself entirely to the polytheistic cults, and which strove, above all,
to defend the old Greek and Oriental religions against the formidable
assaults of Christianity. Iambl