Preliminary material /RUTH MAJERCIK -- INTRODUCTION /RUTH MAJERCIK -- FRAGMENTS /RUTH MAJERCIK -- VARIOUS CHALDEAN EXPRESSIONS /RUTH MAJERCIK -- DOUBTFUL FRAGMENTS /RUTH MAJERCIK -- COMMENTARY /RUTH MAJERCIK -- BIBLIOGRAPHY /RUTH MAJERCIK -- INDEX /RUTH MAJERCIK.

The present volumes is the result of an international collaboration of researchers who are excellent within their respective fields: interpretation of texts, studies of rites, archaeology, architecture, history of art, and cultural anthropology. They met for two conferences to discuss the significance of rites of ablution, initiation, and baptism and their interpretation in Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity. The volume establishes a new international standard of research within these fields of scholarship.

Mankind’s constant struggle with physical as well as mental weaknesses is omnipresent in ancient literature: misconduct, wrongdoing, failure and experiences of contingency are anthropological phenomena. Ancient ethics, epistemology, and natural philosophy have developed different theoretical approaches and guidelines on how to act and how to overcome all kinds of problems. Christian theology, on the other hand, has explained moral failure as a symptom of original sin, comparing decline and destruction to a burden from which mankind is relieved only at the end. The contributions explore how ancient philosophical texts, both pagan and Christian, explain, conceptualize and integrate the myriad manifestations of human fallibility into the different philosophical schools. The focus is on anthropological, ontological and theological concepts that analyse and reflect human fallibility, as well as on the textual and linguistic representation of the phenomenon in ancient literature. Several contributions in the volume explore literary texts that discuss or illustrate the philosophical dimension of fallibility, such as satire’s or tragedy’s (often exaggerated) depiction of human weakness.

In this groundbreaking study, John Kloppenborg traces the literary evolution of Q as a document of primitive Christianity by considering it within the context of ancient literary genres. He argues that Q is composed of three compositional layers, or strata, each of which reflects certain stages of development in the Q community. The earliest formative layer reflects the influence of ancient sapiential sayings: the second layer suggests the influence of the prophetic literature of judgment and contains prophetic oracles and many Son-of-Man sayings. The third layer contains a temptation story, moving the document from a chriae collection in the direction of a biography.

The authorship of De Resurrectione traditionally ascribed to the apologist Athenagoras, and its dating are controversial to this day. Nikolai Kiel proves in this study that the resurrection treatise is pseudonymous. By positioning the text within the intellectual-historical context of early resurrection debates, its origin can be dated to the first half of the 3rd century. The discourse horizon of the discussed tractate has been determined more precisely by means of a reconstruction of the constituent opposing position. Through his interpretative survey of De Resurrectione, the author has advanced the study of apologetic literature from the early patristic Era. Die Verfasserschaft der traditionell dem Apologeten Athenagoras zugeschriebenen Schrift De Resurrectione und ihre Datierung sind bis heute umstritten. Nikolai Kiel weist in dieser Studie nach, dass der Auferstehungstraktat ein Pseudonym darstellt. Durch eine Verortung des Textes im ideengeschichtlichen Kontext der altkirchlichen Auferstehungsdebatten kann seine Entstehung auf die erste Hälfte des dritten Jahrhunderts datiert werden. Hierzu wird auch der Diskurshorizont des untersuchten Traktats mittels einer Rekonstruktion der in der Leugnung der Totenauferstehung bestehenden gegnerischen Position näher bestimmt. Ausgehend von einem interpretierenden Durchgang durch De Resurrectione leistet der Verfasser einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur patristischen Forschung des apologetischen Zeitalters.

The Enneads by Plotinus is a work which is central to the history of philosophy in late antiquity. This volume is the first complete edition of the Enneads in English for over seventy-five years, and also includes Porphyry's Life of Plotinus. Led by Lloyd P. Gerson, a team of experts present up-to-date translations which are based on the best available text, the editio minor of Henry and Schwyzer and its corrections. The translations are consistent in their vocabulary, making the volume ideal for the study of Plotinus' philosophical arguments. They also offer extensive annotation to assist the reader, together with cross-references and citations which will enable users more easily to navigate the texts. This monumental edition will be invaluable for scholars of Plotinus with or without ancient Greek, as well as for students of the Platonic tradition.

Psychology and the Other Disciplines looks at how Aristotelian psychology developed from the medieval to the early modern period, by studying its interactions with the other philosophical disciplines, medicine, and theology.

In the web of cultural processes of late antiquity ablution rites and initiation rites were performed in different forms and in different contexts. Such rites existed in Early Judaism and Greco-Roman cults and were also applied in early Christianity under the label “baptism”, however, not as one fixed rite uniformly performed and interpreted. Baptismal rites developed diversely corresponding to the diversity among Christian groups of which some later came to be perceived as heretical. Remains of art, architecture and texts from these contexts were discussed in two conferences gathering scholars who are excellent within their respective fields: text studies, studies of rites, archaeology, architecture, history of art, and cultural anthropology. These different fields of research have in recent years generated new knowledge that is relevant for the discussion of ablution and initiation rites and their function in late antiquity. At the same time interests of research have altered in favour of a growing cooperation across discipline borders. The present volumes are the outcome of two conferences in Rome 2008 and at Metochi (Lesbos) 2009.