Plotinus and the Augustine on the Mid-Rank of the Soul: Navigating Two Worlds by Joseph Torchia (review)

Reviewed by: Plotinus and the Augustine on the Mid-Rank of the Soul: Navigating Two Worlds by Joseph Torchia Thomas Clemmons TORCHIA, Joseph. Plotinus and the Augustine on the Mid-Rank of the Soul: Navigating Two Worlds. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2023. vii + 237 pp. Cloth, 105. 00 For nearly four decades, Joseph Torchia, O. P. , has written extensively on Augustine and Plotinus. He has produced numerous scholarly articles on both Augustine and Plotinus, as well as monographs on Augustine's understanding of creatio ex nihilo and tolma in Plotinus. This volume on the mid-rank of the soul in Plotinus and Augustine is the fruit of this life-long study. The major premise of Torchia's study is the profound relation, even continuity, between Hellenistic philosophy, especially Neoplatonism, and early Christian thought. The Hellenistic view of an ordered universe, which extends from the material and physical to the spiritual and noetic, End Page 730 places the human in a middle place. This view is exposited most clearly by Plotinus and shared, though with qualifications, by early Christians, especially St. Augustine. Torchia asserts that we are able to see this shared legacy and continuity between philosophers such as Plotinus and Augustine in "their respective anthropological and psychological theories. " The book is divided into halves; the first on Plotinus and the second on Augustine. Torchia's discussion of Plotinus's philosophy narrows and deepens through five chapters, from a general outline of the Alexandrian's system to a heightened focus on the journey of the soul, as imaged through the figure of Odysseus. Torchia rightly notes the inconsistent depiction of the descent of soul (s), especially of individual souls as both in a sense "fallen" and "sent. " This tension is in part resolved through Plotinus's emphasis on the middle place of the soul and the harmony of all the parts within the unity of the whole. The chapters on Plotinus are excellent. Torchia shows how Plotinus integrates concepts from Aristotle, especially his De anima, and qualifies the spiritualized philosophy of Plato. What we get, then, is Plotinus as a highly original philosopher, whose insights deserve closer examination. For example, Torchia glosses the Plotinian dictum, "we are soul, " to examine what is meant by "we" and "soul. " Far from leading to a dismissive view of the body and individuality (as is often stated about Plotinus), Torchia emphasizes that the middle state of the soul is the condition of soul. The lower soul, or the composite (per Torchia), cannot be simply lopped off. To do so, the unity of soul would be destroyed. Torchia thus presents a Plotinus profoundly concerned with humanity in its entirety—our affections, body, thoughts, and individuality. This is why Plotinus and Torchia land on the image of Odysseus as the journeyman to depict human existence. In the final five chapters, the book turns exclusively to Augustine. Torchia outlines the profound difference between Augustine and Plotinus as regards the ontological distinction between God as creator and the human. Because of this distinction, Torchia observes that the mid-rank of the soul takes on a more profound "existential significance. " This existential significance is witnessed in Augustine's emphasis on free will and the "weight of love, " which, according to Torchia, shows affinities with Plotinus but also departs from the determinism and necessity of the descent of soul (s) in the Alexandrian's system. The final chapter of the book examines Augustine's understanding of the two cities, of God and of man. Torchia asserts that the middle-rank of the soul provides the philosophical undercurrent to Augustine's conception of the City of God. The City of God is not exclusively a spiritual reality. Rather, much as with the middle-rank of the soul, the City of God is both "here" and "there. " The permixta of the Church as an intermediate state is "analogous to the mid-rank status of the rational soul. " For Augustine, both the individual and the Church journey, like Plotinus's Odysseus, on the stormy seas. End Page 731 In this book, Torchia has provided a thorough and insightful reading of Plotinus. He highlights the inherent rational optimism of Plotinus as well as the goodness. . .