New book on Alexandria coming

Mohr Siebeck announces that a new book on ancient Alexandria will be out this spring, published in Germany and in German:
Alexandria.
Hrsg. v. Tobias Georges, Felix Albrecht u. Reinhard Feldmeier
Mohr Siebeck May 2013, 600 pages (est.).
They also provide this interesting List of Contents:

Reinhard Feldmeier, Tobias Georges : Vorwort Archäologie und Geschichte Alexandrias Balbina Bäbler : Zur Archäologie Alexandrias – Dorit Engster : Wissenschaftliche Forschung und technologischer Fortschritt in Alexandria – Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : Das Museion und die Große Bibliothek von Alexandria Paganes Alexandria Jürgen Zangenberg : Fragile Vielfalt. Beobachtungen zur Sozialgeschichte Alexandrias in hellenenistisch-römischer Zeit – Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler : Philosophie in Alexandria – der Kreis um Ammonios Sakkas – Martin Bommas : Isis in Alexandria – Theologie und Ikonographie – Stefan Schmidt : Der Sturz des Serapis – Zur Bedeutung paganer Götterbilder in der spätantiken Gesellschaft Alexandrias Jüdisches Alexandria Anna-Maria Schwemer : Zur griechischen und jüdischen Gründungslegende Alexandriens – Maren Niehoff : Jüdische Bibelinterpretation zwischen Homerforschung und Christentum – Felix Albrecht : Die Septuaginta. Einsichten zur Enstehungs-, Überlieferungs- und Wirkungsgeschichte des griechischen Alten Testaments – Friedrich Reiterer : Zwischen Jerusalem und Alexandria. Alttestamentlicher Glaube im Umfeld hellenistischer Politik und Bildung – Jan Dochhorn : Jüdisch-alexandrinische Literatur? Eine Problemanzeige und ein Überblick über diejenige Literatur, die potentiell dem antiken Judentum entstammt – Karin Schöpflin : Die Hellenisierung der jüdischen Gottesbezeichnung. Ein Versuch anhand von Beobachtungen am spätbiblischen Buch Tobit – Reinhard Kratz : Elephantine und Alexandria. Nicht-biblisches und biblisches Judentum in Ägypten – Beatrice Wyss : Philon und die Pentas. Arithmologie als exegetische Methode – Anna-Maria Schwemer : Der jüdische Aufstand in der Diaspora unter Trajan (115-117 n. Chr.) Christliches Alexandria Jürgen Wehnert : Apollos – Winrich Löhr: Christliche ,Gnostiker‘ in Alexandria im zweiten Jahrhundert – Ralf Sedlak : Klemens – ein christlicher Autor in Alexandria – Peter Gemeinhardt : Glaube, Bildung, Theologie: Ein Spannungsfeld im frühchristlichen Alexandria Islamisches Alexandria Hinrich Biesterfeld : “Von Alexandria nach Bagdad”

Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Epistle of James

A former student at The School of Theology and Mission, Stavanger-Norway, now the executive general secretary of the Norwegian Bible Society, Ingeborg Mongstad-Kvammen is about to have her PhD dissertation published at Brill:

Ingeborg Mongstad-Kvammen,
Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Epistle of James.James 2:1-13 in its Roman Imperial Context
(Biblical Interpretation Series 119. Leiden; Brill, 2013).

I am glad to see this news and to bring it further on both for the profit of Ingeborg, and because I was the leader of the assessment board for her dissertation a few years ago. Now it can be accessable for a wider readership. It is, alas, somewhat expensive, but hopefully a library near you will buy it.

The publisher presents the book thus:

Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Epistle of James offers an interpretation of Jas 2:1-13 putting the text in the midst of the Roman imperial system of rank. This study shows that the conflict of the text has more to do with differences of rank than poverty and wealth. The main problem is that the Christian assemblies are acting according to Roman cultural etiquette instead of their Jewish-Christian heritage when a Roman equestrian and a beggar visit the assembly. They are accused of having become too Roman. From a postcolonial perspective, this is a typical case of hybrid identities. Additional key concepts from postcolonialism, such as diaspora, ’othering’ and the binarisms coloniser/colonised, centre/margin, honour/shame, power/powerless are highlighted throughout the study.

Digital Resources for Religion in Late Antiquity

Via Academia.edu I came over a wonderful blog resource for religion in antiquity, called Hieroi logoi: Digital Resources for Religion in Late Antiquity.
The blogger (Paul Dilley), University of Iowa, presents the project thus: “The purpose of this blog is to discover and review all websites relevant to the study of the religions of Late Antiquity, here understood broadly as the period between Alexander the Great (3rd century BCE) and Muhammad (6th-7th century CE). My goal is gradually to create a centralized information portal on this subject, extensively categorized and tagged, for scholarly research and teaching, as well as the interested public. Some of these sites are well known, others obscure; some straightforward to use, others difficult; some are well-funded collaborative efforts, others are more informal. Caveat lector! But all have their interest..”
Looking around on this website I found several I would like to include in my Resource Pages for Biblical Studies.