Rethinking the Gods

"Ancient philosophers had always been fascinated by religion. From the first century BC onwards the traditionally 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 usual perspective of the history of religion, but 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 displayed a relatively high degree of unity in its ideas on religion, which should not be reduced to a preparation for Neoplatonism"--

Autorentext
Peter van Nuffelen is Professor of History at Universiteit Gent, Belgium. His interests cover Hellenistic history, ancient historiography, ancient religion and philosophy and late antique history and literature, including in oriental languages. He has published widely in these fields, including the monograph Un héritage de paix et de piété. Étude sur les Histoires ecclésiastiques de Socrate et de Sozomène (2004) and the edited volumes Faces of Hellenism (2009), Monotheism in Late Antiquity Between Christians and Pagans (2010, with S. Mitchell) and One God. Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire (First-Fourth Centuries AD) (2010, with S. Mitchell). He is currently working on projects on late antique historiography and on ritual communication in Late Antiquity.

Klappentext
Studies the dominant philosophical reflections on religion and the pantheon in the Post-Hellenistic period.

Zusammenfassung
From the first century BC onwards religion was embraced as a source of philosophical knowledge. This book shows how that approach increased the authority of religion and how it further developed in Christianity, thus contributing to current debates about the origins of modern ideas about religion.

Inhalt
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: 5. Towards the pantheon as the paradigm of order; 6. The Great King of Persia and his satraps: ideal and ideology; 7. Dio Chrysostom: virtue and structure in the Kingship Orations; 8. Plutarch: a benevolent hierarchy of gods and men; Part III. Polemic and Prejudice: Challenging the Discourse: 9. Lucian, Epicureanism and strategies of satire; 10. Philo of Alexandria: challenging Greco-Roman culture; 11. Celsus and Christian superstition; Epilogue.

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