Philosophy of the Few against the Christians

Pier Franco Beatrice (1948-) was Professor in Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Padua (1978-2018), and is now Senior Scholar at the same University. He is a member of several international societies and of the advisory board of the Journal of Early Christian Studies. He has authored: La lavanda dei piedi (Rome 1983); L’eredità delle origini (Genova 1992); Anonymi Monophysitae Theosophia (Leiden–Boston–Köln 2001); The Transmission of Sin (Oxford–New York 2013). He is the editor of L’intolleranza cristiana nei confronti dei pagani (Bologna 1990). He has also co-edited Chromatius of Aquileia and His Age (Turnhout 2011), and Pascha nostrum Christus. Essays in Honour of Raniero Cantalamessa (Paris 2016).

• Preface and AcknowlegmentsAbbreviationsIntroductionPart 1 Preliminary Questions1 A Philosophy Conforming with the “Chaldean Oracles”2 An Esoteric Philosophy for the Salvation of the Soul3 The First Commentary on the “Chaldean Oracles”4 Zoroaster, the Magi, and the “Chaldean Oracles”5 Polemics against the Christians6 Some Further ConsequencesPart 2 Χρηστικη Πραγματεια Statues, Sacrifices and Oracles7 Philosophy versus Theurgy8 The Orphic Prorrhesis and the Statues of the Gods9 The Universal Way for the Salvation of the Soul10 Sacrifices and Oracles11 The Letter to Anebo and the Response by Iamblichus12 Chaldean Philosophy versus Chaldean Theology13 The Anti-Christian Oracles of Hekate and Apollo14 Against Origen’s Allegorical Interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures15 Against Origen’s Allegorical Interpretation of HomerPart 3 Πολλων Των Κατα Φιλοσοφιαν Δογματων Αναγραφη The History of Philosophy and the Encyclical Disciplines16 The Chronicle of Greek Philosophy from the Fall of Troy to the Reign of Claudius17 The History of Greek Philosophy from Homer to Plato18 The History of Greek Philosophy from the Old Academy to Plotinus19 The Two Editions of the Life of Plotinus20 The Truest Philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle21 The Oracle of Apollo on Plotinus’s Soul22 Porphyry and the Encyclical Disciplines23 The Mathematical Disciplines24 Augustine on the Encyclical Disciplines25 The Encyclical Disciplines against the ChristiansPart 4 Θεοσοφια Theological Wisdom for the Salvation of the Soul26 The Threefold Division of Philosophy27 Two Preliminary Methodological Issues28 On the Union of Soul and Body29 A Collection of Hieroi Logoi on the Soul30 The Immortality of the Soul31 Self-Determination and Transmigration of the Soul32 Homer’s Philosophy of the Soul33 From Anthropology-Ethics to Physics34 From Physics to Metaphysics-Theology35 Theology as the Fulfilment of Theosophy36 Further Theological Fragments37 Three Books against the Religion and Name of the ChristiansPart 5 Reception in the Latin, Byzantine, and Arabic Traditions38 The Latin Reception39 Augustine and Macrobius40 The Byzantine Reception41 The Relationship with “On Abstinence”42 A Byzantine Epitome of Porphyry’s Theosophy43 An Arabic Translation of Porphyry’s Theology44 The Philosophy of the FewConclusion: A Tentative Reconstruction of the Philosophy according to the Chaldean OraclesBibliographyIndex of Ancient, Medieval and Modern Authors