The Neo-Platonic intelligible idea of cosmopolis, became the model for
the Christian Platonism of Augustine, who dreamed of a New Jerusalem; but also
through the hierarchies of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the Christian
mystic, who used in his work philosophical terms of the Neo-Platonic
philosopher Proclus, passed throughout the medieval world, influencing the
construction of Gothic architecture[1].
The first awareness of this influence is placed historically at the time of
Abbot Suger (1081-1151),
of the monastery of Saint Dionysius. He was a patron of the application of the
Gothic style in architecture, and based on the confusion that existed then
between the martyr Dionysius and the Pseudo-Dionysius, was written by the art
critic Erwin Panofsky, that Gothic style is the result of the idea of the
ascent to the supreme One, as the Neoplatonists believed. Although many
scholars considered this comparison as a simplification, it looks more
plausible when taking into account that through the work of Dionysius the
Areopagite the structure of the ecclesiastical and celestial hierarchy was
officially formalized, based on the vertical and horizontal structures of the
Neo-Platonic thought. If behind the Gothic architecture is the Neo-Platonic ideal, the projection and correspondence of this architecture to the modern
skyscrapers as representatives of the new cosmopolitanism in our contemporary
era, may be supported, not as an analysis of the style in Art, but as regards the
foundation of the human thought in the Western civilization. The Neo-Platonic ideal corresponds to a continuous and perpetual quest for expansion,
expressed by the need for unity and the approach to the divine. So, the view that the roots of modern cosmopolitanism
can be traced in Late Antiquity would not be so risky, regarding the course of
human history as a necessity for structuring a chain of Being[2], which includes and leads to the spiritual anagoge of the humanity and the whole of nature to the absolute.
For more information on the cosmopolitical ideal in the era of Neoplatonists, see Katelis Viglas, "Cosmopolitical Utopias or Dystopias of the First Christian Centuries", HISTORICA THEMATA, Issue 102, May 2011, 64-81 (in Greek).
[1] L. Siorvanes, Proclus. Neoplatonic Philosophy and
Science. Edinburgh University
[2] See A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being. A Study of the
History of an Idea. Harvard University Cambridge , Massachusetts London
