Pleroma
Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα) generally refers to the totality of divine powers. The word means fullness from πληρόω ("I fill") comparable to πλήρης which means "full",[1] and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and by St. Paul the Apostle in Colossians Colossians 2:9 KJV [2] (the word is used 17 times in the NT).[3]
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[edit] Modern use
Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form since the word appears in the book of Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels of Princeton University, view the reference in Colossians as something that was to be interpreted in the gnostic sense.[4]
[edit] Carl Jung
Carl Jung used the word in his mystical 1916 unpublished work, Seven Sermons to the Dead, which was finally published in Answer to Job (1952), and later in an appendix to the second edition of Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962).[5] According to Jung, pleroma is both "nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about pleroma. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities."
[edit] Gregory Bateson
In his work on the Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson adopts and extends Jung's distinction between Pleroma (the non-living world that is undifferentiated by subjectivity) and Creatura (the living world, subject to perceptual difference, distinction, and information).
[edit] Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
John M. Dillon in his "Pleroma and Noetic Cosmos: A Comparative Study" states that Gnosticism imported its concept of the ideal realm or pleroma from Plato's concept the cosmos and Demiurge in Timaeus and of Philo's Noetic cosmos in contrast to the aesthetic cosmos. Dillon does this by contrasting the Noetic cosmos to passages from the Nag Hammadi, where the aeons are expressed as the thoughts of God. Dillon expresses the concept that pleroma is a Gnostic adaptation of Hellenic ideas since before Philo there is no Jewish tradition that accepts that the material world or cosmos was based on an ideal world that exists as well.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Svenska Akademiens Ordbok, search on the word Pleroma [1]
- ^ Colossians2:9
- ^ See Strong's #4138: pleroma [2].
- ^ Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters (1975), Fortress Press, ISBN 0-8006-0403-2; 1992 edition: Trinity Press International, ISBN 1-56338-039-0, p. 137
- ^ Jung C.G., Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-72395-1
- ^ John M. Dillon, "Pleroma and Noetic Cosmos: A Comparative Study" in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism (1992), R.T. Wallis, ed., State Univ. of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-1337-3, 2006 edition: ISBN 0-7914-1338-1.[3]
[edit] Bibliography
- John M. Dillon, "Pleroma and Noetic Cosmos: A Comparative Study" in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism (1992), R.T. Wallis, ed., State Univ. of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-1337-3, 2006 edition: ISBN 0-7914-1338-1.
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