Philo and Philosophy of Religion

One of the books I bought last November at the SBL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, was this:Anthony C. Thiselton, A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion (Grand Rapids, Mi; Baker Academic, 2005), 344pp. The book as such is nothing more than an Introduction, but as such it will be helpful for many students in getting their first grasp on the many persons and issues within the field of philosophy of religion.

In such a book, the articles have to be brief and focused, and in the present setting I would like to point how much he nevertheless is able to say about Philo of Alexandria.

Philo is given an article of his own on pp. 226-227; in addition he is mentioned in several other articles. On pp. 226f he is described a a man who'combines loyalty to the Jewish scriptures with the aim of utilizing Hellenistic and ancient Greek philosophy for the expression of his ideas.' Some of the currents view of him is mentioned, and his works are briefly described. His work is described as 'largely philosophical apologetic for a Hellenistic or heterodox Judaism.'

On pp. 151-2 he is described within an article on Jewish philosophy: "In order to facilitate this task of establishing the rational credibility of Jewish thought about God and the world, Philo drew upon a variety of Greeek philosophical sources"......"This is not simply, as some have claimed, the undisciplined ransacking of sources by an eclectic polymath, but an attempt to draw on a variety of conceptual and logical tools to expound Hebrew-Jewish texts and traditions in the most rational and intelligible light."

On pp. 176-7 Maimodes is described in comparison to Philo; his work Guide of the Perplexed is described as "broadly in the tradition of Philo of Alexandria."
Writing on Jewish mysticism, Philo is described as "too 'rationalist' to merit the term 'mystic' (p.193); writing on Neoplatonism, Philo is mentioned 'en passant' as one who "anticipated Neoplatonic themes" (p. 198), and finally, writing on Religion, religious experiences, Philo is mentioned as one who gives a cosmic and universal significance to Moses, to Jerusalem, to the Temple and to the Sabbath. The law of Moses functions to underline the 'orderedness' of the universe, and exhibits the coherence of the divine principle of reason in the world. Moses is no meree particularist legislator or prophet of a specific nation, but a philosopher for the world, a mediator between God and humankind.... As the embodiment of all knowledge and wisdom, Moses mediates, in effect, a world-view of religious philosophy. Philo is a systembuilder." Thiselton knows that this view of Philo as a system builder is controversial (very much associated with the work on Philo by Wolfson), but he will not view Philo as an idiosyncratic borrower of ideas from a variety of sources.

Some of the viewpoints set forth by Thiselton may be questioned, but my point that in such a brief work as this is, he manages to give well informed insights into the works and ideas of Philo.

This might very well be a book very useful for the student on the border of being initiated into the mysteries of philosophy of religion.