Between 300 and 600, Christianity experienced a momentous change from persecuted cult to state religion. One of the consequences of this shift was the evolution of the role of the bishop--as the highest Church official in his city--from model Christian to model citizen. Claudia Rapp's exceptionally learned, innovative, and groundbreaking work traces this transition with a twofold aim: to deemphasize the reign of the emperor Constantine, which has traditionally been regarded as a watershed in the development of the Church as an institution, and to bring to the fore the continued importance of...

Who can you trust? Finally, Elizabeth and her friends have a hot lead. It appears that a secret brotherhood is responsible for the murders, and its roots hark back to a long-forgotten Indian cult. But it seems they are after Elizabeth now as well, because this invisible society is powerful and will do anything to keep their secret hidden. As if this isn't enough trouble, Daniel is being called to the other side at every sunrise, and the ghost can only stay in this world if Elizabeth is there to anchor him to it. But then Elizabeth is kidnapped, and relentlessly the new day dawns... *Book 2 of...

What do you believe in? And what are you willing to sacrifice for it? Finally, the true motives of the brotherhood are revealed, and now its clear that far more is at stake than Elizabeth and her friends realised: its Daniels soul the brotherhood is after All by herself, Elizabeth has to make a decision, and its not just her own fate that hangs in the balance. But can she win the race against time without the help of her friends? *Book 3 of the GHOSTBOUND-Series*"

This volume examines the evolving role of the city and citizenship from classical Athens through fifth-century Rome and medieval Byzantium. Beginning in the first century CE, the universal claims of Hellenistic and Roman imperialism began to be challenged by the growing role of Christianity in shaping the primary allegiances and identities of citizens. An international team of scholars considers the extent of urban transformation, and with it, of cultural and civic identity, as practices and institutions associated with the city-state came to be replaced by those of the Christian community....

Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis, which pronounces two men, not related by birth, as brothers for life. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in the monastic world of late antiquity, and it becomes a popular social networking strategy among lay people from the ninth century onwards, even finding application in recent times. Located at the intersection of religion and society, brother-making exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical...