Christians, Gnostics and Philosophers in Late Antiquity

Mark Edwards, London: Routledge, 2012

Description

Gnosticism, Christianity and late antique philosophy are often studied separately; when studied together they are too often conflated. These articles set out to show that we misunderstand all three phenomena if we take either approach. We cannot interpret, or even identify, Christian Gnosticism without Platonic evidence; we may even discover that Gnosticism throws unexpected light on the Platonic imagination. At the same time, if we read writers like Origen simply as Christian Platonists, or bring Christians and philosophers together under the porous umbrella of « monotheism », we ignore fundamental features of both traditions. To grasp what made Christianity distinctive, we must look at the questions asked in the studies here, not merely what Christians appropriated but how it was appropriated. What did the pagan gods mean to a Christian poet of the fifth century? What did Paul quote when he thought he was quoting Greek poetry? What did Socrates mean to the Christians, and can we trust their memories when they appeal to lost fragments of the Presocratics? When pagans accuse the Christians of moral turpitude, do they know more or less about them than we do? What divides Augustine, the disenchanted Platonist, from his Neoplatonic contemporaries? And what God or gods await the Neoplatonist when he dies?

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Preface

Part I Christians and Pagans in Dispute: Quoting Aratus: Acts 17.28

Some early Christian immoralities

Justin’s logos and the word of God

Satire and verisimilitude: Christianity in Lucian’s Peregrinus

Xenophanes Christianus?

Pagan and Christian monotheism in the age of Constantine

Notes on the date and venue of the Oration to the Saints

Dracontius the African and the fate of Rome.

Part II Gnostic Thought and its Milieu: Gnostics and Valentians in the church fathers

Neglected texts in the study of Gnosticism

Pauline Platonism: the myth of Valentinus

The tale of Cupid and Psyche

Porphyry’s Cave of the Nymphs and the Gnostic controversy

Part III Christianity and the Platonic Tradition: Socrates and the early Church’ Origen’s Platonism: questions and caveats

Ammonius, teacher of Origen

Birth, death and divinity in Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus

Porphyry and the intelligible triad

The figure of love in Augustine and in Proclus the neoplatonist

Index

Link

https://www.routledge.com/Christians-Gnostics-and-Philosophers-in-Late-Antiquity/Edwards/p/book/9781138115682

Dreams as Divine Communication in Christianity

From Hermas to Aquinas

Koet B.J., Leuven: Peeters, 2012

Description

In the book presented here, one encounters dreams and visions from the history of Christianity. Faculty members of the Tilburg School of Theology (TST; Tilburg University, The Netherlands) and other (Dutch and Flemish) experts in theology, Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages present a collection of articles examining the phenomenon of dreaming in the Christian realm from the first to the thirteenth century. Their aim is to investigate the dream world of Christians as a source of historical theology and spirituality. They try to show and explain the importance and function of dreams in the context of the texts discussed, meanwhile making these texts accessible and understandable to the people of today. By contextualizing those dreams in their own historical imagery, the authors want to give the reader some insight into the fascinating dream world of the past, which in turn will inspire him or her to consider the dream world of today.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Preface

Notes on Contributors

B.J. KOET, Introducing Dreaming from Hermas to Aquinas

J. VERHEYDEN AND M. GRUNDEKEN, The Spirit Before the Letter: Dreams and Visions as the Legitimation of the Shepherd of Hermas. A Study of Vision

K. DE BRABANDER, Tertullian’s Theory of Dreams (De anima 45-49): Some Observations towards a Better Understanding

V. HUNINK, ‘With the Taste of Something Sweet Still in my Mouth’: Perpetua’s Visions

B.J. KOET, Jerome’s and Augustine’s Conversion to Scripture through the Portal of Dreams (Ep. 22 and Conf. 3 and 8)

G. DE NIE, ‘A Smiling Serene Face’: Face-to-Face Encounters in Early Christian Dream Visions

A. SMEETS, The Dazzle of Dawn: Visions, Dreams and Thoughts on Dreams by Gregory the Great

W. VERBAAL, Mysteria somniorum: Bernard of Clairvaux and the Pedagogic of Dreaming

K. PANSTERS, Franciscus somnians: Dreams in Late Medieval Franciscan Biography

G.P. FREEMAN, Clare of Assisi’s Vision of Francis: On the Interpretation of a Remarkable Vision

H. GORIS, Thomas Aquinas on Dreams

List of Abbreviations

Index of names, subjects and passages

Link

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014.05.47/

Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety

Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine

E. R. Dodds, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1965

Description

Interest in the world of Late Antiquity is currently undergoing a significant revival, and in this provocative book, now reissued in paperback, E. R. Dodds anticipated some of the themes now engaging scholars. There is abundant material for the study of religious experience in late antiquity, and through it Professor Dodds examines, from a sociological and psychological standpoint, the personal religious attitudes and experiences common to pagans and Christians in the period between Marcus Aurelius and Constantine. He looks first at general attitudes to the world and the human condition before turning to specific types of human experience. World-hatred and asceticism, dreams and states of possession, and pagan and Christian mysticism are all discussed. Finally Dodds considers both pagan views of Christianity and Christian views of paganism as they emerge in the literature of the time. Although primarily written for social and religious historians, this study will also appeal to all those interested in the ancient world and its thought.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

FOREWORD BY HENRY CHADWICK

PREFACE

KEY TO REFERENCES

Dedication

I – MAN AND THE MATERIAL WORLD

II – MAN AND THE DAEMONIC WORLD

III – MAN AND THE DIVINE WORLD

IV – THE DIALOGUE OF PAGANISM WITH CHRISTIANITY

INDEX

Link

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/pagan-and-christian-in-an-age-of-anxiety/1922795632A358AAC795C531BEA05F51

Rethinking the Gods

Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period

Peter van Nuffelen, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011

Description

Ancient philosophers had always been fascinated by religion. From the first century BC onwards, the traditionally more hostile attitude of Greek and Roman philosophy was abandoned in favour of the view that religion was a source of philosophical knowledge. This book studies that change, not from the perspective of the history of religion, as is usual, but understands it as part of the wider tendency of Post-Hellenistic philosophy to open up to external, non-philosophical sources of knowledge and authority. It situates two key themes, ancient wisdom and cosmic hierarchy, in the context of Post-Hellenistic philosophy and traces their reconfigurations in contemporary literature and in the polemic between Jews, Christians and pagans. Overall, Post-Hellenistic philosophy can be seen to have a relatively high degree of unity in its ideas on religion, which should not be reduced to a preparation for Neo-Platonism.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Introduction

Part I. Ancient Wisdom

  1. Tracing the origins: ancients, philosophers, and mystery cults;
  2. Plutarch of Chaeronea: ‘History as a basis for a philosophy that has theology as its end’;
  3. Numenius: philosophy as a hidden mystery;
  4. Dio Chrysostom, Apuleius and the rhetoric of ancient wisdom;

Part II. Cosmic Hierarchy

  1. Towards the pantheon as the paradigm of order;
  2. The Great King of Persia and his satraps: ideal and ideology;
  3. Dio Chrysostom: virtue and structure in the Kingship Orations;
  4. Plutarch: a benevolent hierarchy of gods and men;

Part III. Polemic and Prejudice: Challenging the Discourse

  1. Lucian, Epicureanism and strategies of satire;
  2. Philo of Alexandria: challenging Greco-Roman culture;
  3. Celsus and Christian superstition;

Epilogue.

Link

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/rethinking-the-gods/D6DC7CEFBB1F323B3D0E76FB141630FF

The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies

de George Boys-Stones, Barbara Graziosi, Phiroze Vasunia (dir.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009

Description

The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies is a unique collection of some seventy articles which together explore the ways in which ancient Greece has been, is, and might be studied. It is intended to inform its readers, but also, importantly, to inspire them, and to enable them to pursue their own research by introducing the primary resources and exploring the latest agenda for their study. The emphasis is on the breadth and potential of Hellenic Studies as a flourishing and exciting intellectual arena, and also upon its relevance to the way we think about ourselves today. The book provides comprehensive guidance in areas such as epigraphy, numismatics, and manuscript studies.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Front Matter

The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies

Acknowledgements

Preface

List of Contributors

Abbreviations

Part I – Hellenes and Hellenisms

Introduction

Hellenism and Modernity – James I. Porter

Indigenous Hellenisms/Indigenous Modernities: Classical Antiquity, Materiality, and Modern Greek Society – Yannis Hamilakis

Near Eastern Perspectives on the Greeks – Robert Rollinger

Colonies and Colonization – De Angelis Franco

The Athenian Empire – Low Polly

Alexander the Great – Briant Pierre

Hellenistic Culture – Susan Stephens

Roman Perspectives on the Greeks – Barchiesi Alessandro

Greece and Rome – Whitmarsh Tim

Hebraism and Hellenism – Gruen Erich S.

The Greek Heritage in Islam – Strohmaier Gotthard

Hellenism in the Renaissance – Celenza Christopher S.

Hellenism in the Enlightenment – Cartledge Paul

Ideologies of Hellenism – Canfora Luciano

Part II – The Polis

Introduction

The Polis – Redfield James

Civic Institutions – Forsdyke Sara

Economy and Trade – Von Reden Sitta

War and Society – Hunt Peter

Urban Landscape and Architecture – Osborne Robin

The City as Memory – Ma John

Ancient Concepts of Personal Identity – Gill Christopher

The Politics of the Sumposion – Hobden Fiona

Coming of Age, Peer Groups, and Rites of Passage – Calame Claude

Friendship, Love, and Marriage – Cantarella Eva

Sexuality and Gender – McClure Laura

Slavery – Dubois Page

Ethnic Prejudice and Racism – Isaac Benjamin

Maritime Identities – Ayodeji Kim

Travel and Travel Writing – Pretzler Maria

Religion – Kindt Julia

Games and Festivals – König Jason

Just Visiting: The Mobile World of Classical Athens – Dougherty Carol

Greek Political Theory – Rowe Christopher

Part III – Performance and Texts

Introduction

Performance and Text in Ancient Greece – Nagy Gregory

Books and Literacy – Rösler Wolfgang

Epic Poetry – Haubold Johannes

Lyric Poetry – Capra Andrea

Tragedy – Taplin Oliver

Comedy – Konstan David

Historiography – Dewald Carolyn

Oratory – Rubinstein Lene

Low Philosophy – Desmond William D.

High Philosophy – Baltzly Dirk

Magic – Collins Derek

Medicine – Holmes Brooke

Music – Rocconi Eleonora

The Exact Sciences – Netz Reviel

Hellenistic Poetry – Sens Alexander

Biography – Pelling Christopher

The Novel – Nimis Stephen A.

Performance, Text, and the History of Criticism – Ford Andrew L.

Part IV – Methods and Approaches

Introduction

Comparative Approaches to the Study of Culture – Lloyd G. E. R.

Postcolonialism – Greenwood Emily

Demography and Sociology – Scheidel Walter

Myth, Mythology, and Mythography – Bremmer Jan N.

Gender Studies – Skinner Marilyn B.

Comparative Philology and Linguistics – Probert Philomen

Epigraphy – Rhodes P. J.

Archaeology – Whitley James

Numismatics – Meadows Andrew

Manuscript Studies – Tchernetska Natalie

Papyrology – Armstrong David

Textual Criticism – Battezzato Luigi

Commentaries – Graziosi Barbara

Psychoanalysis – Bowlby Rachel

Translation Studies – Lianeri Alexandra

Film Studies – Michelakis Pantelis

Reception – Leonard Miriam

End Matter

Name Index

Subject Index

Link

https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199286140.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199286140

The Origins of the Platonic System

Platonisms of the Early Empire and their Philosophical Contexts

Bonazzi M., Opsomer J. (eds), Leuven: Peeters, 2009

Description

From the 1st century BC onwards followers of Plato began to systematize Plato’s thought. These attempts went in various directions and were subjected to all kinds of philosophical influences, especially Aristotelian, Stoic, and Pythagorean. The result was a broad variety of Platonisms without orthodoxy. That would only change with Plotinus. This volume, being the fruit of the collaboration among leading scholars in the field, addresses a number of aspects of this period of system building with substantial contributions on Antiochus and Alcinous and their relation to Stoicism; on Pythagoreanising tendencies in Platonism; on Eudorus and the tradition of commentaries on Aristotle’s Categories; on the creationism of the Jewish Platonist Philo of Alexandria; on Ammonius, the Egyptian teacher of Plutarch; on Plutarch’s discussion of Socrates’ guardian spirit. The contributions are in English, French, Italian and German.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION

Mauro Bonazzi, Jan Opsomer

Thomas BÉNATOUÏL, Qewría et vie contemplative du stoïcisme au platonisme: Chrysippe, Panétius, Antiochus et Alcinoos

Mauro BONAZZI, Antiochus’ Ethics and the Subordination of Stoicism

Gregor STAAB, Das Kennzeichen des neuen Pythagoreismus innerhalb der kaiserzeitlichen Platoninterpretation: „Pythagoreischer“ Dualismus und Einprinzipienlehre im Einklang

Riccardo CHIARADONNA, Autour d’Eudore: Les débuts de l’exégèse des Catégories dans le Moyen Platonisme

Franco TRABATTONI, Philo, De opificio mundi, 7-12

Jan OPSOMER, M. Annius Ammonius, a Philosophical Profile

Pierluigi DONINI, Il silenzio di Epaminonda, i demoni e il mito: il platonismo di Plutarco nel De genio Socratis

INDEX OF ANCIENT NAMES

INDEX OF MODERN NAMES

INDEX LOCORUM

Link

https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2010/2010.08.31/

The Ascent to the Good

The Reading Order of Plato’s Dialogues from Symposium to Republic

Franciso L. Lisi (ed), Lanham: Lexington Books, 2007

Description

Praised and condemned by totalitarians and democrats, liberals, fascists and communists, progressives and conservatives, Plato’s Republic is one of the most influential writings in the history of political ideas. In its central books the philosopher puts in the mouth of Socrates the principles of its challenging political construction. The defense of the philosophical government in Plato’s Republic reveals the necessity of distinguishing true philosophers from false ones. This issue leads to the central question of the Good, the principle that constitutes the foundation of philosophical knowledge and of political activity. Once this principle has been introduced, the subsequent question turns on the education of the philosophers, which occupies Book VII. The present volume contains contributions to the main issues developed in Books V-VII of the Republic, on which the attention of scholarship in the past 100 years has focused, practical philosophy, metaphysics, dialectics, and the question of the Good.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Introduction

  1. The foundations of politics in the central books of the Republic – Francisco L. Lisi

Part I Philosophical Government and Education

  1. Politici e filosofi sulla nave della città – Silvia Gastaldi
  2. Elementi di una fenomenologia della massa nella Repubblica di Platone – Marco Russo
  3. Physis in Republic V 471c – VII 541b – Gottfried Heinemann
  4. Cultivating Intellectual Virtue in Plato’s Philosopher-Rulers – John Cleary
  5. L’innovazione platonica nell’allegoria della caverna – Silvia Campese

Part II Being and Dialectics

  1. ΕΙΝΑΙ, ΟΥΣΙΑ e ΟΝ nei libri centrali della Repubblica – Francesco Fronterotta
  2. Glaucone e i misteri della dialettica – Mario Vegetti

Part III The Good

  1. L’analogia solare del VI libro della Repubblica – Francesca Calabi
  2. La potenza del “Buono” – Franco Ferrari
  3. The Form of the Good – Francisco L. Lisi
  4. El sembrador divino (phutourgós) – Luc Brisson
  5. L’interpretazione del Bene nella Dissertazione XI del Commento alla Repubblica di Proclo – Michelle Abbatte

Bibliography

Index locorum

Link

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498574617/Ascent-to-the-Good-The-Reading-Order-of-Plato%E2%80%99s-Dialogues-from-Symposium-to-Republic

Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

Frede, Dorothea & Reis, Burkhard (eds), Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009

Description

The problem of body and soul has a long history that can be traced back to the beginnings of Greek culture. The existential question of what happened to the soul at the moment of death, whether and in what form there is life after death, and of the exact relationship between body and soul was answered in different ways in Greek philosophy, from the early days to Late Antiquity. The contributions in this volume not only do justice to the breadth of the topic, they also cover the entire period from the Pre-Socratics to Late Antiquity. Particular attention is paid to Plato, Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophers, that is the Stoics and the Epicureans.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Presocratics

Carl Huffman – The Pythagorean conception of the soul from Pythagoras to Philolaus

Christian Schäfer – Das Pythagorasfragment des Xenophanes und die Frage nach der Kritik der Metempsychosenlehre

Brad Inwood – Empedocles and metempsychüsis: The critique of Diogenes of Oenoanda

Anthony A. Long – Heraclitus on measure and the explicit emergence of rationality

Georg Rechenauer – Demokrits Seelenmodell und die Prinzipien der atomistischen Physik

2. Plato

David Sedley – Three kinds of Platonic immortality

Michael Erler – „Denn mit Menschen sprechen wir und nicht mit Göttern“. Platonische und epikureische epimeleia tês psychês

Gyburg Radke-Uhlmann – Die energeia des Philosophen – zur Einheit von literarischem Dialog und philosophischer Argumentation in Platons Phaidon

Jan Szaif – Die aretê des Leibes: Die Stellung der Gesundheit in Platons Güterlehre

3. Aristotle

Günther Patzig – Körper und Geist bei Aristoteles – zum Problem des Funktionalismus

Christopher Shields – The priority of soul in Aristotle’s De anima: Mistaking categories?

David Charles – Aristotle on desire and action

Friedemann Buddensiek – Aristoteles’ Zirbeldrüse? Zum Verhältnis von Seele und pneuma in Aristoteles’ Theorie der Ortsbewegung der Lebewesen

Ursula Wolf – Aporien in der aristotelischen Konzeption des Beherrschten und des Schlechten

4. Academy

John Dillon – How does the soul direct the body, after all? Traces of a dispute on mind-body relations in the Old Academy

5. Hellenism

Keimpe Algra – Stoics on souls and demons: Reconstructing Stoic demonology

Tad Brennan – Stoic souls in Stoic corpses

Christopher Gill – Galen and the Stoics: What each could learn from the other about embodied psychology

Martha C. Nussbaum – Philosophical norms and political attachments: Cicero and Seneca

6. Philosophers of Early Christianity

Jonathan Barnes – Anima Christiana

Therese Fuhrer – Der Geist im vollkommenen Körper. Ein Gedankenexperiment in Augustins De civitate dei 22

Theo Kobush – Die Auferstehung des Leibes

Bibliography

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110216523/html

Plutarch in the Religious and Philosophical

Discourse of Late Antiquity

Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta & Israel Muñoz Gallarte (ed), Leyde: Brill, 2012

Description

The works of Plutarch, notably his Moralia, provide us with exceptional evidence to reconstruct the spiritual and intellectual atmosphere of the first centuries CE. As a priest of Apollo at Delphi, Plutarch was a first range witness of ancient religious experience; as a Middle Platonist, he was also actively involved in the developments of the philosophical school. Besides, he also provided a more detached point of view both regarding numerous religious practices and currents that were permeating the building of ancient pagan religion and the philosophical views of other schools. His combining the insider and the sensitive observer s perspectives make Plutarch a crucial starting point for the understanding of the religious and philosophical discourse of Late Antiquity.

(Text from the publisher)

Table of contents

Preliminary Material – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Introduction: Plutarch at the Crossroads of Religion and Philosophy – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

Plutarch on the Sleeping Soul and the Waking Intellect and Aristotle’s Double Entelechy Concept – Abraham P. Bos

The Doctrine of the Passions: Plutarch, Posidonius and Galen – Francesco Becchi

The Adventitious Motion of the Soul (Plu., De Stoic. repugn. 23, 1045B–F) and the Controversy between Aristo of Chios and the Middle Academy – Raúl Caballero

Plutarch and “Pagan Monotheism” – Frederick E. Brenk

Socrates and Alcibiades: A Notorious σχάυδαλου in the Later Platonist Tradition – Geert Roskam

Salt in the Holy Water: Plutarch’s Quaestiones Naturales in Michael Psellus’ De omnifaria doctrina – Michiel Meeusen

Iacchus in Plutarch – Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal

Plutarch’s Idea of God in the Religious and Philosophical Context of Late Antiquity – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

Plutarch as Apollo’s Priest at Delphi – Angelo Casanova

Plutarch’s Attitude towards Astral Biology – Aurelio Pérez Jiménez

“Cicalata sul fascino volgarmente detto jettatura”: Plutarch, Quaestio convivalis 5.7 – Paola Volpe Cacciatore

The Eleusinian Mysteries and Political Timing in the Life of Alcibiades – Delfim F. Leão

Mυτηριώδης θεολοΥία: Plutarch’s fr. 157 Sandbach between Cultual Traditions and Philosophical Models – Rosario Scannapieco

A Non-Fideistic Interpretation of « pistis » in Plutarch’s Writings: The Harmony Between « pistis » and Knowledge – George van Kooten

The Colors of the Souls – Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Bibliography – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Index locorum – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Index rerum – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Index nominum – Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Muñoz Gallarte

Link

https://brill.com/view/title/22038

The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220 

John M. Dillon , New York: Cornell University Press, 1977

Table of contents

Preface
Abbreviations
1 The Old Academy and the Themes of Middle Platonism
2 Antiochus of Ascalon: The Turn to Dogmatism
3 Platonism at Alexandria: Eudorus and Philo
4 Plutarch of Chaeroneia and the Origins of Second-Century Platonism
5 The Athenian School in the Second Century A.D.
6 The ‘School of Gaius’: Shadow and Substance
7 The Neopythagoreans
8 Some Loose Ends
Bibliography
Afterword
General Index
Index of Platonic Passages
Modern Authorities Quoted

Link

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801483165/the-middle-platonists/#bookTabs=1