The roots and history of the term “anti-Zionism” and its relationship to antisemitism are explored. A distinction is drawn between objections to Zionism within the framework of the Jewish people and the use and abuse of the term as a political tool in the public international arena, which may be expressed with antisemitic motifs and images.

The present volume is the ‘successor’ to The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus (1996). Over the last twenty-five years, there has been an enormous increase in published work on Plotinus and on late ancient Platonism generally. In addition, many scholars who had not even begun their careers twenty-five years ago are now working intensely in this area. This fact is reflected in the list of authors of this volume, none of whom appeared in the previous work and most of whom had not yet even begun their careers when the original Companion appeared.1

The founding fathers of English literature, Chaucer and Shakespeare, bequeathed a range of possible attitudes to Jews and Judaism. These can be found in the ambivalent figure of “the Jew” – malign and benign, medieval and modern – in much 19th- and 20th-century English literature, from the romantic poets to imperial writers, and from realist novelists to modernist writers of all kinds. The essay contextualizes these changing attitudes and ends with Graham Greene, George Orwell, and Margaret Drabble.

Plotinus places emphasis on the intelligible world since it is the paradigm of truth, beauty, and being. Porphyry even orders the treatises in a way that mirrors the ascent to the intelligible world and beyond to the One. This has created the impression for generations that Plotinus is uninterested in the natural world. This is an oversimplification. Plotinus has a sophisticated natural philosophy but it can be difficult to piece together into a coherent whole because much of his comments occur in polemical contexts where he is arguing against a rival school, and they are spread throughout numerous, seemingly unrelated treatises. This is especially the case for his doctrine on sensible bodies. The departure for Plotinus’ view is Timaeus 49d–50a, where Timaeus claims that only the receptacle can be called a ‘this’ (tode) or a ‘that’ (touto), but a thing that enters and leaves the receptacle, such as a primary body, is a ‘what is such’ (toiouton). Plotinus, however, develops Plato’s view by critically engaging with Aristotle and the Peripatetic tradition and reinterpreting the Platonic view in the scheme of his hierarchical metaphysics.

The ways Jews were represented in several genres of medieval writing is examined. The change over time as new narratives developed is shown, and the role of visual imagery in the operation of such medieval texts is also considered.

Self-knowledge for Plotinus concerns the general features of what it is to be a self – a being capable of such self-relations as self-reflexivity and unified consciousness of one’s activities, both mental and bodily. Besides conducting sophisticated discussions on the structural problems of these relations, Plotinus carries on the Socratic interest in care of the self, or in elevation of oneself towards ideal knowledge and virtue – that is, in self-ennobling. In self-improvement, the role of knowledge is central; self-knowledge will reveal the activities typical for different epistemic conditions. Although Plotinus operates with the metaphysical division of soul, body, and the embodied composite he inherited from Classical Greek philosophers, he reshapes the discussion in two important ways: by concentrating on the soul’s power of self-identification – of choosing or attending to itself – and on the way different cognitive activities include a self-reference.

Plotinus focuses on eternity (aiôn) and time (khronos) in treatise 3.7 On Eternity and Time.1 His views are rooted in the earlier tradition and are developed through an interpretation of both Plato (in particular the Timaeus) and Aristotle (in particular Physics 4). Yet Plotinus does not merely resume what had previously been stated by his authorities; his exegetical approach is based on the presentation of distinctive views that are connected to Plotinus’ metaphysical outlook, in particular to his theory of intelligible principles. Plotinus’ discussion of eternity and time is actually centred on (1) the notion of eternity as the lack of duration and extension in time (so Plotinus distinguishes eternity from everlastingness), (2) the idea that time is associated with the activity of the soul rather than with the movement of bodies, (3) the notion of ‘life’ as a mode of being that characterizes, in different ways, both the Intellect and the soul and accounts for the nature of eternity and time as well as for the derivation of time from eternity.

The institutional, social, and theological rise of an imperial-episcopal orthodoxy in the 4th-century Roman Empire transformed the productive, if not always genial, scriptural and ritual interactions among Jews and Christians in previous centuries into a discourse of theological difference, enabling violence and exclusion.

This chapter explores different attempts at understanding antisemitism and engages with philosophical, religious, and psychoanalytical theories.

When Plotinus began his teaching career after moving from Alexandria to Rome in 245 ce, he was faced with the task of defending the correctness of his views not only against the teachings of rival philosophical schools, such as those of the Stoics, Peripatetics, and Epicureans but also against the popular religious movements of his day, chief among them Christianity and Gnosticism. We do not know whether his audience, comprised of people from a range of professional backgrounds, such as doctors, literary critics, and aspiring statesmen, would have included any Christians. But in all likelihood, he would have come into contact with proponents of the new faith at some point during his life.1

The internet has become the prime channel for distribution of antisemitic propaganda today. This chapter traces the history of antisemitism online, with an emphasis on current memes prevalent on social media, as well as some of the impact of that propaganda. It also grounds antisemitism in cyberspace in a historical perspective, demonstrating links between prior print and current electronic antisemitic discourse.

This chapter examines antagonism toward Jews and Judaism as expressed by leading Church Fathers in the West. Particular attention is paid to the novel and influential perspective of Augustine.