The historical separation between Judaism and Christianity is often figured as a clearly defined break of a single entity into two separate religions. Following this model, there would have been one religion known as Judaism before the birth of Christ, which then took on a hybrid identity. Even before its subsequent division, certain beliefs and practices of this composite would have been identifiable as Christian or Jewish.In Border Lines, however, Daniel Boyarin makes a striking case for a very different way of thinking about the historical development that is the partition of...
The historical separation between Judaism and Christianity is often figured as a clearly defined break of a single entity into two separate religio...
Kissing Christians Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church Michael Philip Penn "Penn has succeeded admirably. . . . Kissing Christians has broken new ground, greatly enriching our understanding of this important Christian liturgical ritual and community-forming practice."--The Medieval Review "This fascinating study should serve as an invitation to scholars of ancient Christian discourse, symbol, and liturgy to take the kiss seriously, but not only that: Kissing Christians invites a reconsideration of the intersection of discourse and practice throughout the early...
Kissing Christians Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church Michael Philip Penn "Penn has succeeded admirably. . . . Kissing Christians ...
Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia Adam H. Becker "Adam Becker brings together work in two different linguistic areas, Syriac and Greek, which are usually conducted separately. Since the period dealt with is a time of transition from the ancient to Medieval world, one of immense significance for the subsequent history of both the Middle East and Europe, it is particularly helpful to have a book that shows how these two geographical worlds were intimately linked from a cultural point of view prior...
Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia Adam H. Becker "Ad...
Monastic Bodies Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe Caroline T. Schroeder "Caroline Schroeder presents the first analysis of the ascetic ideology of one of the most important figures in early Egyptian monasticism, Shenoute of Atripe."--David Brakke, Indiana University "This remarkable study focuses on the leadership style . . . developed by Shenoute of Atripe, the third leader of the elaborate complexes for men and women monastics established in the mid-fourth century in Upper Egypt."--Journal of Religion Shenoute of Atripe led the White Monastery, a community of several...
Monastic Bodies Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe Caroline T. Schroeder "Caroline Schroeder presents the first analysis of the ascetic id...
Between the years 350 and 500 a large body of Latin "artes grammaticae" emerged, educational texts outlining the study of Latin grammar and attempting a systematic discussion of correct Latin usage. These texts the most complete of which are attributed to Donatus, Charisius, Servius, Diomedes, Pompeius, and Priscian have long been studied as documents in the history of linguistic theory and literary scholarship. In "Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World," Catherine Chin instead finds within them an opportunity to probe the connections between religious ideology and literary...
Between the years 350 and 500 a large body of Latin "artes grammaticae" emerged, educational texts outlining the study of Latin grammar and attempt...
Virginia Burrus explores one of the strongest and most disturbing aspects of the Christian tradition, its excessive preoccupation with shame. While Christianity has frequently been implicated in the conversion of ancient Mediterranean cultures from shame- to guilt-based, and thus in the emergence of the modern West's emphasis on guilt, Burrus seeks to recuperate the importance of shame for Christian culture. Focusing on late antiquity, she explores a range of fascinating phenomena, from the flamboyant performances of martyrs to the imagined abjection of Christ, from the self-humiliating...
Virginia Burrus explores one of the strongest and most disturbing aspects of the Christian tradition, its excessive preoccupation with shame. While...
Punishment and Freedom The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law Devora Steinmetz "This is an exciting and often brilliant work, perhaps the best available analysis of how judicial punishment is understood in rabbinic literature. Punishment and Freedom contributes mightily to the most vexed and widely debated issue in all of Jewish legal theory, whether Jewish law is to be conceived as positivist or instead as reflecting a notion of natural law."--David Shatz, Yeshiva University In Punishment and Freedom, Devora Steinmetz offers a fresh look at classical rabbinic texts about...
Punishment and Freedom The Rabbinic Construction of Criminal Law Devora Steinmetz "This is an exciting and often brilliant work, perhaps the best avai...
Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity Jeremy M. Schott "Jeremy M. Schott has done a masterful job of elucidating the points of connection--even debate--between Porphyry of Tyre, Lactantius, Constantine, and Eusebius. These men were the most prominent participants in the conversations, debates, and policies that guided Rome's transformations from pagan to Christian state. How their ideas respond to one another has, until now, not been satisfactorily mapped out."--Elizabeth Digeser, University of California, Santa Barbara In Christianity, Empire, and the Making...
Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity Jeremy M. Schott "Jeremy M. Schott has done a masterful job of elucidating the poin...
Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam Thomas Sizgorich "Sizgorich brings the early history of Islamic martyrdom and the emergence of the concept of the shahid ('witness' or 'martyr') into a common framework of similar developments in late antique Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In doing so, he shows that the two worlds were closely related in their development of apparently different kinds of aggressive, even violent behavior that were connected to ideas of ascetic self-control and the disciplining of the community."--Brent...
Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam Thomas Sizgorich "Sizgorich brings the early history of Islamic mart...
In "Conceiving Israel," Gwynn Kessler examines the peculiar fascination of the rabbis of late antiquity with fetuses their generation, development, nurturance, and even prenatal study habits as expressed in narrative texts preserved in the Palestinian Talmud and those portions of the Babylonian Talmud attributed to Palestinian sages. For Kessler, this rabbinic speculation on the fetus served to articulate new understandings of Jewishness, gender, and God. Drawing on biblical, Christian, and Greco-Roman traditions, she argues, the rabbis developed views distinctive to late ancient...
In "Conceiving Israel," Gwynn Kessler examines the peculiar fascination of the rabbis of late antiquity with fetuses their generation, development,...
