Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity

Polymnia Athanassiadi and Michael Frede (eds), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999

Description

In this book distinguished experts from a range of disciplines (Orientalists, philologists, philosophers, theologians and historians) address a central problem which lies at the heart of the religious and philosophical debate of late antiquity. Paganism was not a unified tradition and consequently the papers cover a wide social and intellectual spectrum. Particular emphasis is given to several aspects of the topic: first, monotheistic belief in late antique philosophical ideals and its roots in classical antiquity and the Near East; second, monistic Gnosticism; third, the revelatory tradition as expressed in oracular literature; and finally, the monotheistic trend in popular religion.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Introduction

Towards Monotheism

Monotheism and Pagan Philosophy

Monotheism in the Gnostic Tradition

The Cult of Theos Hypsistos

The Chaldean Oracles

The Speech of Praetextatus

Link

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/10109

The Afterlife of the Platonic Soul

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

The Afterlife of the Platonic Soul

Reflections of Platonic Psychology in the Monotheistic Religions

Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth and John Dillon (Editors), Leyde: Brill, 2009

Description

Plato’s doctrine of the soul, its immaterial nature, its parts or faculties, and its fate after death (and before birth) came to have an enormous influence on the great religious traditions that sprang up in late antiquity, beginning with Judaism (in the person of Philo of Alexandria), and continuing with Christianity, from St. Paul on through the Alexandrian and Cappadocian Fathers to Byzantium, and finally with Islamic thinkers from Al-kindi on. This volume, while not aspiring to completeness, attempts to provide insights into how members of each of these traditions adapted Platonist doctrines to their own particular needs, with varying degrees of creativity.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Introduction

A. Early Period

Philo Of Alexandria And Platonist Psychology – John Dillon

St. Paul On Soul, Spirit And The Inner Man – George H. Van Kooten

B. Christian Tradition

Faith And Reason In Late Antiquity: The Perishability Axiom And Its Impact On Christian Views About The Origin And Nature Of The Soul – Dirk Krausmüller

The Nature Of The Soul According To Eriugena – Catherine Kavanagh

C. Islamic Tradition

Aristotle’s Categories And The Soul: An Annotated Translation Of Al-Kindī’S That There Are Separate Substances – Peter Adamson and Peter E. Pormann

Private Caves And Public Islands: Islam, Plato And The Ikhwān Al-Ṣafāʾ – Ian Richard Netton

Tradition And Innovation In The Psychology Of Fakhr Al-Dīn Al-Rāzī – Maha Elkaisy-Friemuth

D. Judaic Tradition

The Soul In Jewish Neoplatonism: A Case Study Of Abraham Ibn Ezra And Judah Halevi – Aaron W. Hughes

Maimonides, The Soul And The Classical Tradition – Oliver Leaman

E. Later Medieval Period

St. Thomas Aquinass Concept Of The Human Soul And The Influence Of Platonism – Patrick Quinn

Intellect As Intrinsic Formal Cause In The Soul According To Aquinas And Averroes – Richard C. Taylor

Bibliography

Index Of Names

Index Of Concepts And Places

Link

https://brill.com/view/title/16850

Philosophy in Christian Antiquity 

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Philosophy in Christian Antiquity 

Christopher Stead, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Description

Christianity began as a little-known Jewish sect, but rose within 300 years to dominate the civilized world. It owed its rise in part to inspired moral leadership, but also to its success in assimilating, criticizing and developing the philosophies of the day. This book, which is written for nonspecialist readers, provides a concise conspectus of the emergence of philosophy among the Greeks, an account of its continuance in early Christian times, and its influence on early Christian thought, especially in formulating the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Preface

List of abbreviations

PART I – THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND

1 – From the beginnings to Socrates

2 – Socrates and the Platonic Forms

3 – The philosophy of Plato’s maturity

4 – Aristotle

5 – Epicurus and the Stoics

6 – The Middle Platonists and Philo of Alexandria

7 – The philosophy of late antiquity

PART II – THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY IN CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

8 – The debate about Christian philosophy

9 – Greek and Hebrew conceptions of God

10 – Proofs of the existence of God

11 – God as simple unchanging Being

12 – How God is described

13 – Logos and Spirit

14 – Unity of substance

15 – Substance and Persons

16 – Christ as God and Man

17 – Two natures united

PART III – AUGUSTINE

18 – Philosophy, faith and knowledge

19 – Freedom and goodness

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Link

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/philosophy-in-christian-antiquity/B53F1ECF998DBE42C7C37C9DB22A63CA

Porphyry Against the Christians

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Porphyry Against the Christians 

Robert M. Berchman, Leiden: Brill, 2005

Description

This volume is a translation of fragments and testimonia of Porphyry’s lost work « Against the Christians ». The first part of the work examines Author, Title, date of composition, and sources. The second part discusses the structure of « Against the Christians, » The third part focuses on the religious, philosophical, and cultural background of this text. The fourth section constitutes the translation of the fragments and testimonia of « Against the Christians, » This work is especially important for historians of religion, philosophy, and Biblical Studies for it is an excellent example of a pagan tradition of scriptural interpretation and criticism of Christianity.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Chapter One Author, Title, Date of Composition, Sources, Geographical Provenance  p. 1-6

Chapter Two Structure, Genre, and Taxonomy. p. 7-16

Chapter Three Chapter Three Religious and Philosophical Elements  p. 17-71

Chapter Four Cultural Background p. 72-117

Chapter Five Fragments, Orthography and Languages. p.118-121

Chapter Seven Fragments, Translation, and Exegetical Notes  p. 123-221

Link

https://brill.com/view/title/12202?contents=toc-44457

Recognising the Margins

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Recognising the Margins

Developments in Biblical and Theological Studies 

Werner Jeanrond,‎ Andrew D. H. Mayes (ed), New York: Columbia University Press, 2007

Description

Eighteen scholars from Ireland and from many parts of the world contribute eighteen significant articles under four headings: Biblical Themes, Theological Themes, Cultural Themes and Ethical Themes. The contributors are Joseph Blenkinsopp, Martin Hengel, A. D. H. Mayes, Stephen D. Moore, Ellen J. van Wolde, John Dillon, James P. Mackey, John D’Arcy May, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Werner G. Jeanrond, Karl-Josef Kuschel, Enda McDonagh, Felix Wilfred, Nigel Biggar, Stephen J. Duffy, Maureen Junker-Kenny, Dietmar Mieth and Elaine M. Wainwright. These essays are published to mark the occasion of Seán Freyne’s 70th birthday in 2005.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Preface

I. Biblical themes

1. Who is the teacher in Isa 30:20 who will no longer remain hidden? – Joseph Blenkinsopp

2. The messianic secret in Mark -​ Martin Hengel

3. The Exodus as an ideology of the marginalised -​ A. D. H. Mayes

4. Mark and empire -​ Stephen D. Moore

5. Crossing border : speaking about the beginning in Genesis 1 and John 1 -​ Ellen J. van Wolde.

II. Theological Themes

6. « The eye of the soul » : the doctrine of the higher consciousness in the neoplatonic and sufic traditions -​ John Dillon

7. The lapses in Christian theology at the end of the second millennium – James P. Mackey

8. Rootedness : reflections on land and belonging -​ John D’Arcy May

9. An other name for G*d -​ Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza.

III. Cultural Themes

10. The future of Christianity in Europe – Werner G. Jeanrond

11. Interreligious dialogue and global ethic in an age of globalisation -​ Karl-Josef Kuschel

12. Theatre, tragedy and theology -​ Enda McDonagh

13. The Galileans of the south : the untouchables at the margins -​ Felix Wilfred.

IV. Ethical Themes

14. Specifying the Meaning: Jesus, the New Testament and violence -​ Nigel Biggar

15. The quest for freedom in a culture of choice -​ Stephen J. Duffy

16. Virtues and the God who makes everything new -​ Maureen Junker-Kenny

17. The role and backgrounds of religious, ethical, legal and social issues in the progress of science – Dietmar Mieth

18. « It is part of a process, it is part of a pilgrimage » : text in context and conflict -​ Elaine M. Wainwright.

Link

https://www.worldcat.org/title/recognising-the-margins-developments-in-biblical-and-theological-studies-essays-in-honour-of-sean-freyne/oclc/84899066

The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

The Making of Fornication

Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in

Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity

Kathy L. Gaca, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003

Description

This provocative work provides a radical reassessment of the emergence and nature of Christian sexual morality, the dominant moral paradigm in Western society since late antiquity. While many scholars, including Michel Foucault, have found the basis of early Christian sexual restrictions in Greek ethics and political philosophy, Kathy L. Gaca demonstrates on compelling new grounds that it is misguided to regard Greek ethics and political theory—with their proposed reforms of eroticism, the family, and civic order—as the foundation of Christian sexual austerity. Rather, in this thoroughly informed and wide-ranging study, Gaca shows that early Christian goals to eradicate fornication were derived from the sexual rules and poetic norms of the Septuagint, or Greek Bible, and that early Christian writers adapted these rules and norms in ways that reveal fascinating insights into the distinctive and largely non-philosophical character of Christian sexual morality. Writing with an authoritative command of both Greek philosophy and early Christian writings, Gaca investigates Plato, the Stoics, the Pythagoreans, Philo of Alexandria, the apostle Paul, and the patristic Christians Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, and Epiphanes, freshly elucidating their ideas on sexual reform with precision, depth, and originality. Early Christian writers, she demonstrates, transformed all that they borrowed from Greek ethics and political philosophy to launch innovative programs against fornication that were inimical to Greek cultural mores, popular and philosophical alike. The Septuagint’s mandate to worship the Lord alone among all gods led to a Christian program to revolutionize Gentile sexual practices, only for early Christians to find this virtually impossible to carry out without going to extremes of sexual renunciation. Knowledgeable and wide-ranging, this work of intellectual history and ethics cogently demonstrates why early Christian sexual restrictions took such repressive ascetic forms and cast a sobering light on what Christian sexual morality has meant for religious pluralism in Western culture, especially among women as its bearers.

(Text by the author)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1. Introduction: Ancient Greek Sexual Blueprints for Social Order

Part I. Greek Philosophical Sexual Reforms
2. Desire’s Hunger and Plato the Regulator
3. Crafting Eros through the Stoic Logos of Nature
4. The Reproductive Technology of the Pythagoreans

Part II. Greek Biblical Sexual Rules and Their Reworking by Paul and Philo
5. Rival Plans for God’s Sexual Program in the Pentateuch and Paul
6. From the Prophets to Paul: Converting Whore Culture into the Lord’s Veiled Bride
7. Philo’s Reproductive City of God

Part III. Patristic Transformations of the Philosophical, Pauline, and Philonic Rules
8. Driving Aphrodite from the World: Tatian and His Encratite Argument
9. Prophylactic Grace in Clement’s Emergent Church Sexual Ethic
10. The Fornicating Justice of Epiphanes
11. Conclusion: The Demise of Greek Eros and Reproduction

Bibliography
Index

Link

https://california.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1525/california/9780520235991.001.0001/upso-9780520235991

Philosophie und Religion

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Philosophie und Religion

Jens Halfwassen (Hg.), Markus Gabriel (Hg.), Stephan Zimmermann (Hg.), Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, 2011

Beschreibung

Gegenwärtig läßt sich eine Renaissance der Metaphysik diagnostizieren. Dabei wird naturgemäß auch die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Philosophie und Religion neu aufgeworfen. Seit ihren frühesten Anfängen setzt sich die Philosophie mit der Religion auseinander, in der sie teils konkurrierende Wahrheitsansprüche, teils aber auch komplementäre Einsichten vermutet hat. Der vorliegende Band untersucht das Verhältnis von Philosophie und Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

(Verlagstext)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

GELEITWORT

AXEL HUTTER: Die Verwandtschaft von Philosophie und Religion. Erinnerung an ein verdrängtes Sachproblem

JAN ASSMANN: Der allumfassende und der persönlich e Gott in philosophischen’ Hymnen der altägyptischen Theologie

JOSE PEDRO SERRA: Tragedy and Mythology: Aeschylus and the Oresteia

CARLOS JOÃO CORREIA: The Self and the Void

WERNER BEIERWALTES: Plotins Theologik

MARKUS ENDERS: Gott und die Übel in dieser Welt. Zum Projekt einer philosophischen Rechtfertigung Gottes (Theodizee) bei Leibniz und Kant

JÜRGEN STOLZENBERG: Religiöses Bewußtsein nach Kant. Fichte und Friedrich von Hardenberg

GÜNTER ZÖLLER: „Die beiden Grundprincipien der Menschheit ». Glaube und Verstand in Fichtes später Staatsphilosophie

KATIA HAY: Die „unerwartete Harmonie ». Differenzen und Analogien zwischen Philosophie und Religion in Schellings Denken

MARKUS GABRIEL: „Die allgemeine Notwendigkeit der Sünde und des Todes ». Leben und Tod in Schellings Freiheitsschrift

JENS HALFWASSEN: Metaphysik im Mythos. Zu Schellings Philosophie der Mythologie

PAULO BORGES: From God, « the only perfect atheist », to the « masquerade ball » of creation in Teixeira de Pascoaes

CRISTINA BECKERT: The Ambiguity of God in Levinas

STEPHAN ZIMMERMANN: Zum gesellschaftstheoretischen Religionsbegriff von Niklas Luhmann

FRIEDRICH HERMANNI: Gottesgedanke und menschliche Freiheit

Link

https://www.winter-verlag.de/de/detail/978-3-8253-6758-9/Halfwassen_ua_Hg_Philosophie_u_Religion_KT_POD_/

Giuliano Imperatore filosofo neoplatonico

Publié le par Luciana Soares

Giuliano Imperatore filosofo neoplatonico

Maria Carmen de Vita, Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 2011

Descrizione

Da sempre considerato una delle figure più affascinanti del paganesimo tardoantico, per il suo sogno impossibile di riportare in auge gli antichi dèi in un mondo già permeato dal cristianesimo, l’imperatore Giuliano l’Apostata per lungo tempo non ha goduto di buona fama presso gli storici della filosofia. Il presente volume è un’esplorazione sistematica alle radici del suo pensiero, ricostruito dai molteplici spunti presenti nei discorsi, nelle lettere e nei frammenti dell’opuscolo Contro i Galilei. Attraverso un confronto dettagliato con le dottrine dei filosofi del III-V secolo, Maria Carmen De Vita intende restituire a Giuliano la sua esatta collocazione nel panorama del neoplatonismo tardoantico e, soprattutto, verificare come l’aspetto più discusso del suo breve periodo di governo, ossia la controversa lotta ai Galilei, non sia che la pars destruens di un progetto più impegnativo, comprendente, nelle intenzioni del princeps, una pars costruens altrettanto ambiziosa: l’istituzione di una nuova teologia-liturgia ellenica in cui gli antichi culti, riproposti in una cornice metafisica largamente ispirata al neoplatonismo, possano offrire una valida alternativa alla dirompente originalità del monoteismo cristiano.

Biografia dell’autore: Maria Carmen De Vita (1975) ha conseguito il titolo di dottore di ricerca in Filologia classica (2005) e in Filosofia d’età tardoantica, medievale ed umanistica (2008) presso l’Università di Salerno. Ha collaborato con l’Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici di Napoli con un progetto di ricerca sul rapporto fra retorica e filosofia nell’ambito della cultura tardoantica. È autrice di studi sulla tradizione platonica (Protagora 314c3- 316a5, 2004; Il mito di Prometeo in Platone e in Temistio, 2004), sulla storia della retorica antica (L’organismo vivo del logos, 2009), e sulla ricezione del platonismo nel dibattito pagano-cristiano del IV secolo (Un ‘agone’ di discorsi: Genesi e Timeo a confronto nel trattato di Giuliano Contro i Galilei, 2008).

(Testo della casa editrice)

Link

https://www.vitaepensiero.it/scheda-libro/maria-carmen-de-vita/giuliano-imperatore-filosofo-neoplatonico-9788834320396-141801.html

Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity

Publié le par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete

Drudgery Divine

On the Comparison of Early Christianities

and the Religions of Late Antiquity

Jonathan Z. Z. Smith, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990

Description

In this major theoretical and methodological statement on the history of religions, Jonathan Z. Smith shows how convert apologetic agendas can dictate the course of comparative religious studies. As his example, Smith reviews four centuries of scholarship comparing early Christianities with religions of late Antiquity (especially the so-called mystery cults) and shows how this scholarship has been based upon an underlying Protestant-Catholic polemic. The result is a devastating critique of traditional New Testament scholarship, a redescription of early Christianities as religious traditions amenable to comparison, and a milestone in Smith’s controversial approach to comparative religious studies.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

On the origin of origins

On comparison

On comparing words

On compating stories

On comparing settings

Index

Link

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3619682.html

Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism

Publié le par Luciana Soares

Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism

Algis Uždavinys, London: Matheson Trust, 2011

Description

A book on the religious, mystic origins and substance of philosophy. This is a critical survey of ancient and modern sources and of scholarly works dealing with Orpheus and everything related to this major figure of ancient Greek myth, religion and philosophy. Here poetic madness meets religious initiation and Platonic philosophy. This book contains fascinating insights into the usually downplaid relations between Egyptian initiation, Greek mysteries and Plato’s philosophy and followers, right into Hellenistic Neoplatonic and Hermetic developments.

(Text from the publisher) 

Table of contents

Preface   ix

  1. A Model of Unitive Madness 1
  2. Socratic Madness 5

III. Socrates as Seer and Saviour   9

  1. Philosophy, Prophecy, Priesthood 17
  2. Scribal Prophethood 19
  3. Eastern and Greek Prophethood 21

VII. Inside the Cultic Madness of the Prophets   25

VIII. Egyptian Priesthood   32

  1. Orpheus as Prophet 37
  2. Orpheus and the Pythagorean Tradition 41
  3. Orpheus and Apollo 44

XII. Orphic Revolution   47

XIII. Knowledge into Death  52

XIV. Telestic Restoration   58

  1. Lyre of Orpheus 61

XVI. Cosmic Unfolding of the One   64

Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism  viii

XVII. Recollection and Cyclic Regression    68

XVIII. Orphic and Platonic Forms   72

XIX. Method of Philosophical Catharsis   76

  1. Deification of the Egyptian Initiate-Philosopher. . . 79

XXI. From Homer to Hermetic Secrecy   84

XXII. Into the Mysteries   89

XXIII. Beyond the Tomb   93

XXIV. Conclusion   97

Link

https://www.themathesontrust.org/new-monograph-orpheus-and-the-roots-of-platonism