Philo of Alexandria - Books and Journals

critical studies 2003 235
roleofthemassesisanalyzedinrelationtothekeyword‘market-place.’The
author underlines Jewish pluralism. Judaism is not a uniform block; different
groups have different interests. He shows that exchange of religious ideas occurs
not only in the intellectual upper class of Alexandria. On the other hand it is
argued that, in contrast to the situation in Asia Minor, the political background
fosters the outbreak of the riots. The social order had been disturbed from the
beginning of the Roman era, allowing the ‘market-place’ to become a theatre of
war. (GS)
20305.H.Amirav,Rhetoric and Tradition: John Chrysostom on Noah
and the Flood, Traditio Exegetica Graeca 12 (Leuven 2003), passim.
In the analysis of John Chrysostom’s homilies on Noah and the flood (ns.
22–24), the author makes frequent brief references to Philo’s exegesis. (ACG)
20306. J.A.ArietiandP.A.Wilson,The Scientific and the Divine:
Conflict and Reconciliation from Ancient Greece to the Present (Lanham
Md. 2003).
In their preface, the authors identify several approaches to the relationship
between science and religion: denying the divine, denying science, understanding
the divine as compatible with science, viewing science and religion as completely
distinct spheres, and declaring the ways of God to be unknowable. Part
One has chapters on the problem posed by science and religion, the nature of
human reason, ancient and modern science, the origin of scientific attempts to
explain the world, and pagan philosophers’ attempts to reconcile science and
religion through their understanding of God. Part Two is devoted to attempts
from antiquity (Plato) through the end of the 20th century to reconcile science
and religion. In this section Philo earns a chapter of his own. With Opif.
as their focus, the authors explain that Philo grounds ethics in physics when
he claims that Mosaic Law derives from the creator of the whole universe,
and he thus views Jewish law as having universal significance. The authors
discuss how Philo interprets the biblical creation account in terms of Plato’s
Timaeus, and they observe that his notion of God goes beyond the realm of
Platonic ideas. Philo’s efforts ‘to reconcile the best scientific theories of his era
with revealed religion’ were continued in the Middle Ages by Jewish, Christian,
and Islamic philosophers who grappled with Aristotelian science (p. 151).
(EB)
20307. A.E.Arterbury,‘Abraham’sHospitalityamongJewishand
Early Christian Writers: a Tradition History of Gen 18:1–16 and its
RelevancefortheStudyoftheNewTestament,’Perspectives in Religious
Studies 30 (2003) 359–376.
The story of Abraham’s hospitality to the three visitors in Gen 18:1–16 was
retold and interpreted by later exegetes to reflect their own interests, values, and