Die Gottesschau. 230

Drawing on texts by Porphyry, Plotinus, and Proclus, this study examines the Neoplatonic distinction between intelligible contemplation and union with the First Principle. While the ascent through the intelligible realm is described as a transcendent vision of noetic realities, the encounter with the One-Good surpasses the very category of vision. Since the First Principle transcends being, thought, and every subject-object relation, henosis cannot be reduced to an act of cognition. In Plotinus, the highest mystical experience is portrayed as an identification of the soul with the One beyond all duality, whereas Proclus emphasizes a unitive becoming-one with the Principle that transcends intellectual activity. Such union is attained only through contemplative silence and the suspension of discursive and noetic operations. The study also highlights the reception of this doctrine in the Corpus Dionysiacum, where access to the divine darkness beyond knowledge is achieved through unknowing and the abandonment of vision itself.