Dean Gjorcheski: Divine Origin or Divine Becoming: the Concept of διπλοῦς (diplous) in the Ps.Macarian Homilies and Plotinus' Enneads

The concept of the double man (diplous) is an emanation of the interiorization of the divine experience, which is central in both Ps.Macarian Homilies and Plotinus’ Enneads. While Ps.Macarius’ work is characterized by interiorization of Yahweh’s Glorious presence within the depths of the human soul, Plotinus’ most radical philosophical contribution is his interiorizing of the cosmic trinitarian hypostasis within the self. Both authors hold that the union with the divine within the depths of the ‘inner man’ is the ultimate goal of one’s spiritual ascent. The premises upon which they build their philosophical/theological systems, however, are entirely different. Plotinus draws upon earlier Platonic ideas of the divine origin of the soul (the apex of the 'inner man'), while Ps.Macarius holds that human soul is a mere creation in need of an external divine element. In this paper, I will show that in their interiorizing tendencies, both Ps.Macarius and Plotinus came up with the notion of diplous in spite of their rather different starting points. Furthermore, I will show that Ps.Macarius is an important writer within the Eastern Christian tradition and for authors such as Gregory of Nyssa, who benefited from exposure to Plotinian ideas and language, Ps.Macarius was a comprehensible author whose conceptions he was willingly promoting. To that goal, I will engage into a focused textual study on key passages in both the Homilies and the Enneads; I will analyze the starting points, and point out to the key similarities, differences, and effects of the concept of diplous.