Dr Daniel J. Tolan is a Fellow at The Polonsky Academy for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is scholar of late antique thought and spirituality, with a focus on early Christianity and the Platonic tradition. Prior to taking up this Fellowship, he was a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Platonism, where he was the Centre’s inaugural Academic Secretary, and where he remains the Senior Principal. He received his MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity as a member of Clare College, and his MA from Yale University. His publications can be found in the Harvard Theological Review, Vigiliae Christianae, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, and Studia Patristica.

Edited Volume

Participation in the Divine: A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era, eds Douglas Hedley and Daniel J. Tolan, Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Expected publication July 2024): https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/participation-in-the-divine/067ADE3652DD4A21EA7FA65EE1FFA055

Articles

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Ὁ Θεὸς ἔρως ἐστί: Origen and the Attribution of ἔρως to God’, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition (Open Access; Advanced Article). https://doi.org/10.1163/18725473-bja10024.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Μέσος ὑμῶν ἕστηκεν: Origen’s Four Definitions of μέσος and His Application of John 1:26 to Theological Anthropology’, Vigiliae Christianae 77, issue 4 [2023] 375-399 (Open Access). https://doi.org/10.1163/15700720-bja10050.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Plotinus, the Undescended Soul, and the Chariot of the Soul (ὄχημα πνεῦμα)’, Post Augustum (vol. 7 [2023] 55-67). http://www.postaugustum.com/journal/plotinus-the-undescended-soul-and-the-chariot-of-the-soul-ὄχημα-πνεῦμα-σ-55-67-2/.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘The Flight of the All-One to the All-One: The φυγὴ μόνου πρὸς μόνον as the Basis of Plotinian Altruism’, Harvard Theological Review (vol. 114, issue 4 [2021] 469–490). (Open Access) https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017816021000316.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Origen’s Refutation of the Divine Ideas in Περὶ Ἀρῶν II 3.6 as the Emergence of “Neoplatonism”’, in Studia Patristica CXI, M. Vinzent (ed.), Leuven: Peeters (2021), pp. 125-136.

Chapters

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Origen on Participation’, in Participation in the Divine: A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era, eds D. Hedley and D. Tolan, Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/participation-in-the-divine/067ADE3652DD4A21EA7FA65EE1FFA055.

Douglas Hedley and Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Introduction’, in Participation in the Divine: A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era, eds D. Hedley and D. Tolan, Cambridge Studies in Religion and Platonism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/participation-in-the-divine/067ADE3652DD4A21EA7FA65EE1FFA055.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Ὠριγένης καὶ ἡ Γένεσις τῆς Χριστιανικῆς Φιλοσοφίας’ (Origen and the Genesis of Christian Philosophy [in Modern Greek]) in ΑΡΧΑΙΑ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΚΑ ΘΕΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΑΤΕΡΙΚΗ ΚΑΙ ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΝΗ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑ (Ancient Philosophical Themes in Patristic and Byzantine Philosophy), ed. Μελίνα Γ. Μουζάλα (Melina G. Mouzala) (Αθήνα [Athens]: Εκδόσεις Παπαζήση [Papazisis Publishing House], 2023), 37-59.

John Dillon and Daniel J. Tolan, ‘Ideas as Thoughts of God’, in A.B. Hampton and J.P. Kenney (eds.), Christian Platonism: A History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 34-52. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108590341.003.

Daniel J. Tolan, ‘The Impact of the ὁμοούσιον on the Divine Ideas’, in P.G. Pavlos, L.F. Janby, E.K. Emilsson and T.T. Tollefsen (eds.), Platonism and Christian Thought in Late Antiquity, London: Routledge, 2019, pp. 129-150. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429440465.