“Christian spirituality had been strongly influenced by Platonism, which sought to liberate the soul from the body, but in some circles in the early fourth century, people were beginning to hope that their hitherto despised bodies could bring men and women to the divine – or at least that it was not a reality separate from the physical, as the Platonists held.25.”

“Christian spirituality had been strongly influenced by Platonism, which sought to liberate the soul from the body, but in some circles in the early fourth century, people were beginning to hope that their hitherto despised bodies could bring men and women to the divine – or at least that it was not a reality separate from the physical, as the Platonists held.25.”

— Karen Armstrong