Rethinking the Gods

Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period

By: Peter van Nuffelen

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Hardcover | 1 December 2011 | Edition Number 1

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282 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 1.75

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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.

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'... [Nuffelen] has provided us here with a most stimulating, well-researched and well-argued monograph on a complex of topics central to the intellectual concerns of a wide range of thinkers in the first two centuries of the Common Era.' Literaturkritik

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Acknowledgements	p. vii
Note on abbreviations	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Ancient Wisdom
Tracing the origins: ancients, philosophers and mystery cults	p. 27
Plutarch of Chaeronea: 'History as a basis for a philosophy that has theology as its end'	p. 48
Numenius: philosophy as a hidden mystery	p. 72
Dio Chrysostom, Apuleius and the rhetoric of ancient wisdom	p. 84
Cosmic Hierarchy
Towards the pantheon as the paradigm of order	p. 101
The Great King of Persia and his satraps: ideal and ideology	p. 122
Dio Chrysostom: virtue and structure in the kingship orations	p. 147
Plutarch: a benevolent hierarchy of gods and men	p. 157
Polemic and Prejudice: Challenging the Discourse
Lucian, Epicureanism and strategies of satire	p. 179
Philo of Alexandria: challenging Graeco-Roman culture	p. 200
Celsus and Christian superstition	p. 217
Epilogue	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 242
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Rethinking the Gods

Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-Hellenistic Period

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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