This book is a comprehensive study of the experience of alienation in its many and inter-related manifestations as attested in the late-antique East. It situates Christianity s enduring legacy in its early historical context and explores the way estrangement from all worldly attributes was elevated to the status of a cardinal religious virtue. The author analyzes the reasons for the new faith s concern for the marginalized and shows the contemporary relevance of social utopia as an antidote to alienation. Christianity s contradictions are also examined as, in opposing the existing legal...