ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to assess Marsilio Ficino's adaptation of apparent Neoplatonic figures of argument that he employed to justify Christian views. First the epistemological and metaphysical significance of the hierarchy of beings will be at stake, which will involve the doctrine of the spiritual beings, namely angel and soul. Then the notion of Oneness will be analyzed regarding its function of transcending the finite world and its rhetorical function within Ficino's agenda of philosophy and piety. Finally Ficino's very concept of religion, as expressly discussed by him, will give insight into the importance of his thought for the relationship between humanity and divinity on the various levels of theoretical and practical philosophy. His formula that in loving God we appear to love ourselves may then be transformed into a characteristically modern diagnosis according to which theology ceases to be the word about God and glides unavoidably over to talk about men: anthropocentric theology is anthropology.
