TEAGOGY (Θεαγωγία, from Θεός = god and ἀγωγός = that which attracts, that which evokes). — It is a technical term of theurgic liturgy, by which was denoted the coercive evocation of a deity performed by a priest (JAMBLICHUS, De myst., 2, 10; 6, 1; PORPHYRY, Ad Aneb., 29).
Theurgy occupied a central place in that Neoplatonic philosophy which, after Plotinus, assumed—especially in the schools of Syria and Pergamon (JAMBLICHUS, Edesius, Priscus, Maximus)—a magical character. The art which taught the manner of summoning gods by means of ritual formulae (ἀναγκαῖ) was called ἀναγωγή ἐπιστήν or ἐπιστήν τῆς γνώμης (a work of Proclus, partially translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino under the title De sacrificio et magia, is the Iesù τῆς ἐπιστήν τῆς γνώμης; cf. J. Bidez-F. Cumont, Catal. des manuscr. arch. grecs, VI). By this means, the priest became κλήτωρ (evoker) and ἐπανάγκαδος of the deity (cf. Porphyry, De philos. ex orac. haur., p. 158 W.) and performed the miracle of evocation (ἐπανάγκαδος: cf. Plato, Resp., 364 c.; Leg., 933 d.). The deity was compelled by the ritual-theurgic operation to enter a statue or the body of the evoker, who thus became the δοχεύς of the numen, and to answer the questions put to it (cf. Firmicus Maternus, De err. prof. relig., 13). A clear opposition to theurgy is revealed in the Christian Neoplatonism of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite, De div. nom., 3, 1.