Theurgy and Freemasonry
Following a brief exchange in another thread I am genuinely interested in a debate and whilst it will be very hard to change my mind I am open to proper evidence that there is theurgy in Craft Freemasonry.
My position -
Theurgy derives from Platonism and in particular from Iamblichus who expanded theurgy considerably from Plato's initial views.
Early Christianity and in particular the patristic fathers adopted quite a bit of Platonism, or indeed, took large amounts of Platonism and adopted it into Christianity.
The platonic/Euclidian concept of necessity is an important concept in Christian Mysticism for example and one reason why I believe that Anderson/Preston expanded on the philosophical elements of Freemasonry in the 1700's.
However there is little evidence to suggest that theurgy was adopted by Christianity in the Platonic sense. Pseudo-Dionysius took the phrase but inverted it completely. He took a person working in order to influence the divine (the platonic and modern meanings of theurgy) and gave it the meaning of god acting on mankind via the liturgy - that is grace. Even here, its usage is essentially limited to Pseudo-Dionysius and it isn't something you see crop up with other patristic fathers or anywhere else in a Christianity. Grace existed as a concept but only Pseudo-Dionysius seems to have called it Theurgy.
Theurgy as used today is largely of the Golden Dawn descended Magic using a Platonic name to try and give it some prestige.
Therefore, except as a limited, technical term, restricted to Pseudo-Dionysius and referring to Grace there is no Theurgy (that is operative magic) in Christianity or Freemasonry.
If a Brother wants to explore Golden Dawn style theurgy then obviously they can do whatever side quest they want - but it isn't part of Craft Freemasonry.