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Philo of Alexandria fuses biblical interpretation and Greco-Roman cosmology in seemingly contradictory fashion: the physical world is sometimes God's enemy, but elsewhere his son and greatest work. Charles A. Anderson examines six key cosmological terms for Philo, including kosmos, physis (and natural law), and argues that his ambivalence is best understood perspectivally. The 'lower' perspective views the world positively, as a means of knowing and becoming like God, while the 'higher' perspective sees it negatively, as an obstacle to true communion with God. Philo is ultimately a cosmological pessimist and thus diverges surprisingly from the main lines of both Scripture and Platonism. This book will be of interest to students of ancient Judaism, ancient philosophy, biblical cosmology, and all who reflect on how Jewish-Christian sacred texts can influence contemporary environmental discourse.

Following a scholarly conference given in honor of Adela Yarbro Collins, this collection of essays offers focused studies on the wide range of ways that women and gender contribute to the religious landscape of the ancient world. Experts in Greek and Roman religions, Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Ancient Christianity engage in literary, social, historical, and cultural analysis of various ancient texts, inscriptions, social phenomena, and cultic activity. These studies continue the welcomed trend in scholarship that expands the social location of women in ancient Mediterranean religion to include the public sphere and consciousness. The result is an important and lively book that deepens the understanding of ancient religion as a whole. With contributions by:Patricia D. Ahearne-Kroll, Loveday Alexander, Mary Rose D'Angelo, Stephen J. Davis, Robert Doran, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Carin M. C. Green, Fritz Graf, Jan Willem van Henten, Paul A. Holloway, Annette B. Huizenga, Jeremy F. Hultin, Sarah Iles Johnston, James A. Kelhoffer, Judith L. Kovacs, Outi Lehtipuu, Matt Jackson-McCabe, Candida R. Moss, Christopher N. Mount, Susan E. Myers, Clare K. Rothschild, Turid Karlsen Seim

This volume brings together both young and mature philosophers from the analytic and process traditions to dialogue on central questions in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, and philosophy of language. The papers not only fill a massive gap in the intersections of interest between analytic and process scholars of religion but also demonstrate beyond any doubt that two traditions of process and analysis are integral to current philosophical movements and debates. The main questions discussed here include the nature of 'good' metaphysics, the application of modal discourse to the understanding of God's reality, God's epistemic nature, and the grammar of 'the world'.With contributions by:Vincent Colapietro, Daniel A. Dombrowski, Roland Faber, Patrick N. Horn, James A. Keller, George R. Lucas, Jr., D. Z. Phillips, Randy Ramal, Jay W. Richards, Peter Simons, Charles Taliaferro, Donald W. Viney

One of the intriguing questions in the study of the period of the re-formation of Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple is the identity of a group which appears in hundreds of Talmudic sources from those days - the minim..It is clear that most of these sources reflect different facets of the polemic between Judaism and Christianity, which were both engaged in establishing their identities. This book concentrates mainly on the second century CE, and includes two basic questions: the question of the earliest text of the twelfth blessing of the central Jewish prayer composed at that time, Birkat haMinim; and the question of the identity of those minim who are cursed in this blessing.In the first section of the book, Yaakov Yanki Teppler analyzes the blessing itself. In the second section, which concerns the question of its principal objects, he sets out on a quest for the characterization of the minim, using all the hundreds of sources which deal with them. Having united these two sections in one framework, a proposal is made as to the identity of the minim. This proposal should provide a coherent basis for further research on this subject, laying a firm foundation for understanding the processes of separation between Judaism and Christianity in this stormy and fascinating period.

Willis Salier investigates the use of the term semeia and the narratives this term refers to in the rhetorical strategy of John's Gospel. The three poles of author, text and reader are considered. The study is more literary and socio-historical in flavour and bypasses previous discussions regarding sources, which have tended to dominate research on the semeia in the Fourth Gospel.First, he investigates the resonances that the term might have with an audience in the late first century. This part of the investigation concludes that the term helps to build a bridge between the conceptual background of the Gospel and the broader cultural foreground of its audience. It is also suggested that the term both draws on, and contributes to the prominent trial motif in the Gospel itself.Second, the semeia narratives are investigated for their place in the rhetorical strategy of the Gospel. It is concluded that they point to the identity of Jesus as the divine Messiah of God, illustrate the life that his ministry brings, and provide a subtle critique of other 'would be' lifegivers in the surrounding cultural milieu.

The religious history of Palestine has not yet been studied as that of an ordinary, Roman province. Until now, scholars have mainly highlighted the two, monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianism. If Palestinian uniqueness comes actually from them, pagan Palestine little differed from the rest of the Roman - especially eastern - world and was in fact a real religious mix due to its history in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Nicole Belayche examines the pagan part, quantitatively the majority, of the Palestinian population between 135 and the fourth century. As a consequence of the two revolts of 66-70 and 132-135, pagan peoples had been settled all over the territory and pagan cults - avodah zarah to speak as a Mishnah - spread with them. Data of various natures and religious origins allow one to reconstruct the ritual aspects of the pagan cults. The collection of gods is varied and their origins recall local history, Semitic but above all Graeco-Hellenistic and then Roman. They prove the adherence of the province to the main religious trends of the imperial, Graeco-eastern ensemble. The pagan religious life is studied for itself and in the relationship of the pagans to the Jewish population, since monotheistic and polytheistic communities did not live in closed worlds. The general plan of the book follows them city by city in order to respect the juridical status of the communities and their cultural personality. Second to fourth century Judaea-Palestine offers a good short cut to the religious procedures at work in the already Hellenized Roman provinces, perhaps the best one due to local history. The mechanics of cohabitation in the system of Graeco-Roman cultural representation functioned here as elsewhere because the monotheistic communities, Jewish then Christian, from the third century on, did not risk intermixing. As in the rest of the Empire, Constantine's reign was not an effective turning point and pagan cults still flourished until the end of the fourth century at least.

This third volume, which offers further insights into the most important source of late antique Judaism, the Talmud Yerushalmi, in relation to its cultural context, marks another step in a research project on the Talmud Yerushalmi initiated by the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Free University (Berlin) in 1994 and concluded by a conference held at Princeton University in November 2001. This volume focuses on a wide range of topics such as gender studies, aspects of everyday life, Roman festivals, magic etc., hereby reflecting on the methodological problems inherent in intercultural studies. Thus, this collection of articles could also serve as a model for similar enterprises in other studies of Judaism in various cultural contexts.From reviews of the previous volumes: "This collection reflects the state of contemporary scholarship and its struggle to understand and thoughtfully reconstruct Jewish culture in late antique Palestine. It belongs in all specialized Judaica libraries and in research libraries that collect deeply in classical civilization."Steven Fine in Religious Studies Review 3 (1999) vol. 25, p. 331f.

Das sozialphilosophische Hauptwerk von Karl Popper behandelt vor allem die Geschichte des Historizismus, das heißt, die Idee eines gesetzmäßigen historischen Ablaufs, bei Platon (Band I) sowie bei Hegel, Marx und deren Nachfolgern (Band II). Es enthält außerdem eine Vielzahl von Erörterungen über erkenntnistheoretische, philosophische, ethische und politische Fragen, die bis heute von brennender Aktualität sind. Daß dieses Buch seit 1945 in 23 Sprachen übersetzt wurde, macht deutlich, daß Poppers 'Kriegsbeitrag' weit mehr ist als eine originelle Auseinandersetzung mit den philosophischen Systemen von der Antike bis heute.Die Theorie der offenen Gesellschaft, also die ständige schrittweise Verbesserung von Institutionen in parlamentarisch-demokratischen Gesellschaften, ist in diesen beiden Bänden so gründlich entwickelt, daß alle an der Begründung und Weiterentwicklung von Zivilgesellschaften interessierten Personen sich mit ihr auseinandersetzen sollten.