I was incredibly delighted to get a copy of James Colbert's new translation of Jean Daniélou's classic introduction to Philo, Philo of Alexandria. I don't remember if there has ever been an English translation before (it was originally French), but there certainly isn't one easily available. So Colbert, an emeritus philosophy professor, has done us a great service by translating it!One of the reasons I wrote my own A Brief Guide to Philo back in 2005 was because there weren't any accessible, easily available introductions to Philo around. Daniélou's was in French and Goodenough's was then out of print. True, Peder Borgen had come out with something like an overview, but I thought it was a little out of reach for the beginner. Since then there is also the Cambridge Companion to Philo, probably more for the educated beginner than my book.
All that is to say that Daniélou's 1958 overview of Philo is now an excellent option for the person who wants a segway into the man. Check out the Table of Contents on Amazon.
Many thanks to Colbert for this tremendous service!
2 comments:
Thanks for the alert, Ken. I own both your book on Philo and the one published by Cambridge University Press, and I've enjoyed them both.
The big question now is: When, oh when is someone going to translate Jan A. Buhner's book, Der Gesandte und Weg im 4. Evangelium, into English? If someone doesn't do so by the time I retire then maybe I'll just have to learn German and do it myself!
Who is this Richard Schenk who has recently authored 'Abrief guide to Philo'? (Translator's foreword). :)
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