Three books that may be of interest

There has been a lot of interesting stuff published recently, such that we wanted to mention three very different books in this post.

The letters of Gregory of Nazianzus have been done into English for the first time all in one place. For those unfamiliar with Gregory, he was a highly-apophatic inheritor of the esoteric tradition of (probably) Clement and (definitely) Origen within the eastern church, but unlike those two luminaries, he is at the heart of what is considered ‘Orthodox’. The new translation, by Bradley Storin, is reviewed here by Jonathan Warner.

Storin, Bradley K. (trans.). Gregory of Nazianzus’s Letter Collection: The Complete Translation. Christianity in Late Antiquity, 7. Oakland: University of California Press, 2019.

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Sophia Xenophontos has edited a new companion to the reception of Plutarch for Brill, reviewed here by Brad Cook, who is most positive in his take on the book.

Sophia Xenophontos, Brill’s companion to the reception of Plutarch. Brill’s companions to classical reception, volume 20. Leiden: Brill, 2019

For scholars of esotericism, and only esotericism, this is not the book on Plutarch that they have been waiting for all these years, but there are some chapters which look promising, e.g:

Elsa Giovanna Simonetti, “Plutarch and the Neoplatonists: Porphyry, Proklos, Simplikios,” pp. 136–153

Geert Roskam, “On Donkeys, Weasels and New-Born Babies, or What Damaskios Learned from Plutarch,” pp. 154–170

Eodoxia Delli, “The Reception of Plutarch in Michael Psellos’ Philosophical, Theological and Rhetorical Works: An Elective Affinity,” pp. 205–233

Florin Leonte, “Plutarch and Late Byzantine Intellectuals (c. 1350–1460),” pp. 340–357 (especially if it discusses Plethon, which it logically must do).

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Last but not least, a new book which may be of interest to some of our members:

Salih, Sarah. Imagining the Pagan in Late Medieval England. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2019.