Religio-Philosophical Discourses in the Mediterranean World

Anders Klostergaard Petersen (Gold medal Dissertation Aarhus, 1994) is Professor of the Study of Religion at Aarhus University. He has published extensively on early Christ-religion, late Second Temple Judaism, method and theory in the humanities and social sciences, and biocultural evolution.George van Kooten (PhD Leiden, 2001) is Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity at the University of Groningen and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He has published widely on the Graeco-Roman setting of the New Testament, including monographs on Paul’s cosmology (Mohr, 2003) and anthropology (Mohr, 2008).

• ContentsPart I: Plato1 Plato’s Philosophy – Why Not Just Platonic Religion?Anders Klostergaard Petersen2 Platonic Piety: ‘Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again’ Frisbee Sheffield3 The Real Euthrypho Problem, Solved Nicholas Denyer4 Religion, Philosophy, and the Demons in BetweenLars AlbinusPart II: Explorations in an Emerging Common Discourse5 Philosophical Traces in the Sibylline Oracles Helen Van Noorden6 Philosophy and Religion and Their Interactions in 4 Maccabees Anders Klostergaard Petersen7 The Rapprochement of Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Consolation: Seneca, Paul, and Beyond Christoph JedanPart III: Placing Jesus Among the Philosophers8 Jesus Among the Philosophers Bernhard Lang9 The Last Days of Socrates and Christ George van Kooten10 Criticism of Verbosity in Ancient Philosophical and Early Christian Writings Daniele PevarelloPart IV: Reconsidering Early Pagan-Christian Relations11 Christians According to Second-Century PhilosophersSimon Gathercole12 Epictetus’ Views on Christians – A Closed Case Revisited Niko Huttunen13 Plotinus, Origenes, and Ammonius on the ‘King’ Harold Tarrant14 Neo-Platonic Readings of Embodied Divine Presence: Iamblichus and Julian Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler

The scope signified by the title of this book is breathtakingly broad, but it actually does delineate the contents of the book reasonably well… A number of the essays are programmatic discussions of the conceptual puzzle posed by the books title, while others are close studies of particular texts. Among the latter kind, there is much more attention devoted to Platonism than to any other ancient philosophical school. But this is only the first volume in a series. It is a welcome contribution in its own right and gives us reason to look forward to more such. - Matthew V. Novenson, in: Journal for the study of the New Testament, 2018The launch of this new series intended to foster research on the relationship between ‘Ancient Religion and Philosophy’ is only to be welcomed and applauded. And the volume to launch it opens up various ways to discuss the question. In fact, it poses more questions than it answers—and this is exactly what a volume opening a new scholarly series should do! - RAINER HIRSCH-LUIPOLD, Universität Bern, in: Journal of Theological Studies, 70.2 (2019)