Religion and Identity in Porphyry of Tyre: The Limits of Hellenism in Late Antiquity

FAIN: FT-59359-11

Aaron Paul Johnson
Lee University (Cleveland, TN 37311-4475)

This book project examines the cultural engagements (in particular, in the areas of religion and ethnic representation) of the third century Platonist philosopher, Porphyry of Tyre. As a native of Phoenicia who studied in Athens and then Rome, becoming one of the most important thinkers of his time, he offers a significant and highly complex model of intellectual interaction, appropriation and manipulation of elements of the cultural and imperial worlds of late antiquity. Porphyry's now largely fragmentary corpus has yet to receive a complete analysis in English, while an approach that identifies his modes of "cultural translation" has never been performed. Funding is sought for the completion of the book (which has already received a contract from Cambridge University Press, for its series "Greek Culture in the Roman World").