Stoicism with its emphasis on Logos: divine law that orders natural world.

Neo-pythogoriansim: its concept on emanation

There were strong tendency on dualism, we have seen dualistic interpretation of
Plato in which matter is presumably some primal uncreated chaos into which forms
come. A dualist interpretation of Plato with implication on the problem of evil.
There were also various kind of Gnosticism which explicitly regarded matter is evil
or source of evil and mind or reason is good.
In addition to Gnosticism and Platonism, Stoicism which has double aspect theory
where stoics viewed nature as process of change, some of it likened the basic stuff
of fiery vapour, like Heraclitus. But the otherside, ofcourse the Logos, the
orderedness, law governed nature of things. So various tendency of dualism.
What middle Platonism does decisively for the future of Platonism, to push dualism
to monistic direction. Not two ultimate realities or two irreconcilable aspects to
reality but one inclusive reality from which verities derive and in which return.
They did it by means of new-pythagorian emanation.
Neo-pathagorian cocieved a hieararichy of beings with varying degrees of being and
perfection: from the God all way down to other extreme non-being. A hierarchy with
all sorts of intermediary being.
This conceptual model hierarchy of being governs the period of middle age. God is
transcendent in the sense he is qualitatively far beyond this earth and creatures.
But at the some time it preserves the transcendence and facilitates the imminent of
God. Keeping both things in balance. Plato and Aristotle god is beyond.
They trying to preserve imminets by virtue of logos doctrine taken over from the
stoics. For stoics, Logos was divine reason probably impersonal, but changing
rational principle that embraces and permeates everything in existence. So there
are seeds of logos in every particular thing. Now if thats the case, you see in
hierarchy seeds of logos running all way down everywhere. It is by virtue of the
logos that the divine being is imminent in every natural thing, in every earthly
process.
Among human being who dont in accordance with logos, as according to Stoic ethic
we have to live. Human being who dont putting in the Platonic language, conform
to the forms of their human existence, they dont achieve the actuality of inherent
capacity and evil then is the privation, the privation of good. It is privation of the
intended good of form in actualization. So you can see the way in which breaking
with dualism, monism is now involved what you have in fact may sound Pantheism.
Because if the Logos is divine and permeates all the things, then it sound the divine
is in everything.

You have God, you have logos then first god known as prototheos and the deuteres
theos second God. Third world soul. This is the pre-christian conception of the divine
trinity in a purely pagan contest. And it is this formulation provided the conceptual
tool for the earlier church in beginning to formulate the doctrine of trinity.
This development which fed into the later emergence neo-platonism.
Logos-world soul