Ficino on the Exalted and Suffering Body: Comparing the Platonic Theology and On the Christian Religion

To what extent does Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic theology correspond to his Christian theology? This question, although too wide to grasp all at once, furnishes the inspiration for the following essay. Here I discuss the human body in the Platonic Theology — the human body as an intellectual helpmate, companion to the soul, and site of spiritual danger. I then consider the significance of the body in On the Christian Religion, Ficino’s major Christian theological statement. I show how the meaning of physical suffering in this latter treatise corresponds to the Platonic Theology and transcends it. I conclude the paper by arguing that physical suffering, for Ficino, embeds the Christian within the history of the Church.