This volume demonstrates that the word magic was widely employed in late antique texts as part of polemical attacks on enemies - but at the simplest level it was merely a term used for other people's rituals. The study begins by analyzing Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman uses of the term in the first three centuries AD. The author then turns to a series of in-depth examples of magical practice - exorcisms, love rites, alchemy and the transformation of humans into divine beings, examining how such rituals were thought to work. The book ends with an exploration of issues of gender and magic,...

Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive and accessible survey of religious and philosophical teaching and classroom practices in the ancient world. H. Gregory Snyder synthesizes a wide range of ancient evidence and modern scholarship to address such questions as how the literary practices of Jews and Christians compared to the literary practices of the philosophical schools and whether Christians were particularly noteworthy for their attatchment to scripture.
Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World will be of interest to students of classics,...

Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive and accessible survey of religious and philosophical teaching and classroom practices in the ancient world. H. Gregory Snyder synthesizes a wide range of ancient evidence and modern scholarship to address such questions as how the literary practices of Jews and Christians compared to the literary practices of the philosophical schools and whether Christians were particularly noteworthy for their attatchment to scripture.
Teachers and Texts in the Ancient World will be of interest to students of classics,...

This text explores the notion of Christian ethics and discusses its roots, its significance in developing moral standards throughout the world, as well as its stability in the modern world. It begins with a study of the ethos of early Christian communities. He pays particular attention to the relation of cosmic vision to moral attitude and authority, noting also the types of moral discourse used. He then traces the roots of these developments to the Old Testament and to the ministry of Jesus. The second half of the book concentrates on selected moral themes, concerned with persons, with...