The Reception of Philo of Alexandria

Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish statesman, philosopher, and religious thinker. A significant amount of his literary corpus was preserved by Christian hands and thereby came to resource numerous theologians in the Christian tradition. After passing into obscurity in Jewish circles in antiquity, Philo was rediscovered in the Italian Renaissance and came to feature in Jewish tradition once again. Philo’s works straddle an interest in exegesis and philosophy, and the multi-faceted contents of his thought ensured a long history of reception among readers with their own agendas. This authoritative and systematic collection of essays by an international team of experts surveys Philo’s reception from the time of his immediate contemporaries to the present day. The book unfolds over six sections: the first centuries, late antiquity, the middle ages, the renaissance and early modern period, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and contemporary perspectives.

Courtney J. P. Friesen, Associate Professor, Religious Studies and Classics, University of Arizona, David Lincicum, Associate Professor of Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, University of Notre Dame, David T. Runia, Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Courtney J. P. Friesen received his Ph.D. in Classical and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2013 and was Instructor of Greek in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford from 2013 to 2015. Since 2015 he has been at the University of Arizona and is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Classics. His first book, Reading Dionysus (2015), explored ancient receptions of Euripides’ Bacchae and he has a forthcoming volume entitled Playing Gods, Acting Heroes, and the Interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Greek Drama in the Early Common Era.

David Lincicum received his D.Phil. in New Testament from the University of Oxford, then served as Departmental Lecturer (2009-2011), Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (2011-2012), and Associate Professor of New Testament Studies (2012-2015) at the University of Oxford, and as G. B. Caird Fellow in Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford (2012-2015) before coming to the University of Notre Dame in 2015, where he is now Associate Professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity.

David T. Runia studied Classics at the University of Melbourne and was awarded the degree of Litt.D. at the Free University, Amsterdam in 1983. He was De Vogel Professor of Ancient and Patristic Philosophy at Utrecht University in 1991-1999, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Leiden University in 1992-2002, Master of Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne in 2002-2016, and Director of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at the Australian Catholic University in 2017-2018. He now lives in retirement in Melbourne, Australia.