Cosmic Order and Divine Power

Pseudo-Aristotle, On the Cosmos

edited by Johan Thom and with Renate Burri, Clive Chandler, Hans Daiber, Jill Kraye, Andrew Smith, Hidemi Takahashi and Anna Tzvetkova-Glaser

Book cover: Cosmic Order and Divine Power

Extent: 240 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Philosophy

Series: Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia

Series volume number: 23

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2014)

ISBN: 9783161528095

Price: $74.00

In stock

~ENG~The treatise De mundo offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity.


The treatise De mundo (On the Cosmos), dated around the 1st century BCE, offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which draws also on Platonic and Stoic thought and subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity. In line with the aims of the SAPERE series, this volume on De mundo is explicitly interdisciplinary by nature, bringing together contributions from scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines and specialisations which focus on specific topics, each from its own disciplinary perspective. The volume contains a Greek text and translation of De mundo as well as interpretive essays on the language and style, geography, cosmotheology and the reception in or possible influence of De mundo in various intellectual traditions.

  • With Renate Burri
  • With Clive Chandler
  • With Hans Daiber
  • With Jill Kraye
  • With Andrew Smith
  • With Hidemi Takahashi
  • With Anna Tzvetkova-Glaser
  • Edited by Johan Thom