Neoplatonism

Part I of Essay
As defined by Funk and Wagnals, is a type of idealistic monism in which the ultimate reality of the universe is held to be an infinite, unknowable, perfect One. From this one emanates nous (pure intelligence), whence in turn is derived the world soul, the creative activity ....

Part II of Essay
.... maintains, by virtue of the very freedom of will that enabled it to choose its sinful course. The soul must reverse that course, tracing in the opposite direction the successive steps of its degeneration, until it is again united with the fountainhead of its being. The actual reunion is accomplished through a mystical experience in which the soul knows an all-pervading ecstasy. Doctrinally, is characterized by a categorical opposition between the spiritual and the carnal, elaborated from Plato's dualism of Idea and Matter; by the metaphysic ....