Porphyry

This study proposes that Neoplatonism, while not a modern philosophy, is philosophy in the modern sense. Lloyd analyzes the key structures that underlie the dogmas of the Neoplatonic world picture, including the concept of emanation, the return of the soul to the One, the place of mystical knowledge, epistemology, and Porphyry's theory of predication, and shows that they rest on original but intelligible concepts and arguments.

Arnobius of Sicca, in North Africa, was a Christian convert writing in the time of the Emperor Diocletian in the 3rd sentury AD. His most famous work, Against the Pagans, was written shortly after his conversion (c. AD 302), and is a brilliant defense of his new religion using arguments taken from the best of pagan learning. It demonstrates exactly the nature and intensity of the conflict between pagans and Christians at this period. This book, the first major study of Arnobius, deals fully with every important aspect of his life and writing and demonstrates his significant contribution to the final triumph of Christianity over its Graeco-Roman competitors.

The Pythagorean idea that number is the key to understanding reality inspired philosophers in the fourth and fifth centuries to develop theories in physics and metaphysics using mathematical models. These theories were to become influential in medieval and early modern philosophy, yet until now, they have not received the serious attention they deserve. This book marks a breakthrough in our understanding of the subject by examining two themes in conjunction for the first time: the figure of Pythagoras as interpreted by the Neoplatonist philosophers of the period, and the use of mathematical ideas in physics and metaphysics.

This book is the first to tackle the origins and purpose of literary religious apologetic in the first centuries of the Christian era by discussing, on their own terms, texts composed by pagan and Jewish authors as well as Christians. Previous studies of apologetic have focused primarily on the Christian apologists of the second century. These, and other Christian authors, are represented also in this volume but, in addition, experts in the religious history of the pagan world, in Judaism, and in late antique philosophy examine very different literary traditions to see to what extent techniques and motifs were shared across the religious divide. Each contributor has investigated the probable audience, the literary milieu, and the specific social, political, and cultural circumstances which elicited each apologetic text. In many cases these questions lead on to the further issue of the relation between the readers addressed by the author and the actual readers, and the extent to which a defined literary genre of apologetic developed. These studies, ranging in time from the New Testament to the early fourth century, and including novel contributions by specialists in ancient history, Jewish history, ancient philosophy, the New Testament, and patristics, will put the study of ancient religious apologetic on to a new footing.