Sometimes I wonder about the progression of life and death, which follows which? What comes after? And whether or not is is beautiful? Thankfully, a long time ago somebody solved that problem for me.

Between the years 810-815 AD in Ireland, John Scotus Eriugena was born. He would become one of the first early medieval philosophers, appearing a few hundred years after the likes of Boethius and St. Augustine. He would be steeped in the Latin and Greek philosophical tradition and be renowned not only for his introduction of Neoplatonism into medieval thought but his daring philosophical treatise, the Periphyseon meaning on the divisions of nature.  

The Periphyseon

This treatise would be written in a dialogue between a teacher and student that spans 5 volumes. Its aim, to articulate a true human nature and reveal a comprehensive structure of reality. Or as it is initially divided, all things that are, and all things that are not. This initial division leads to the 4 categories or species of “things” that denote all nature. That which is creating but not created (God), that which is both created and creating (his primordial causes), that which is not creating but is created (non-divine things around us), and lastly that which is not creating nor is created (also God). 

The 4 Divisions

Now these divisions may seem confusing, and it should be taken note that two of the divisions, both the 1st and the last are God. All of the categories can be broken down to provide a sense of unity to his theory. The 1st division of nature (that which is creating but not created) is God as he is the only necessarily existing omnipresent source of creation for the universe, everything that is, must emanate from him. The 2nd division (that which is both created and creating) is what is referred to as the primordial causes, the divine word of God that acts as exemplars for all physical and spiritual things like being, goodness, and piety. The creative nature of the primordial causes lies in their function as a divine blueprint for the creation of principles or essences. The 3rd division is the created universe, all objects knowable in space and time. The last division once again God is non-being or nothingness, but nothingness within God. Because God acts as the primary originator for all nature he also acts as the final and changeless resting place for it. It is from God that a beautiful and divine multiplicity of nature arises and it is to him that it inevitably returns. 

Emanation and Return

Eriugena argues that the reason that these divisions of nature must return back to God is because of the believed to be inherent metaphysical tendency of effects to return to their causes. So because God is the ultimate predecessor of all nature and thus its cause, he must also serve necessarily as its final destination. Once such a cataclysmic return occurs and the finite rejoices with the infinite, the temporal rejoins with the spiritual, and the light of man becomes one with the light of divine, then all nature may rest in unity. 

“God shall be all in all,”

as John Scotus Eriugena understands it.