Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198813194
Number of Pages: 300
Published: 31/08/2020
Width: 16.2 cm
Height: 24.1 cm
The topic of religious identity in late antiquity is highly contentious. How did individuals and groups come to ascribe identities based on what would now be known as 'religion', categorizing themselves and others with regard to Judaism, Manichaeism, traditional Greek and Roman practices, and numerous competing conceptions of Christianity? How and why did examples of self-identification become established, activated, or transformed in response to circumstances? To what extent do labels (whether ancient and modern) for religious categories reflect a sense of a unified and enduring social or group identity for those included within them? How does religious identity relate to other forms of ancient identity politics (for example, ethnic discourse concerning 'barbarians')? Rhetoric and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity responds to the recent upsurge of interest in this issue by developing interdisciplinary research between classics, ancient and medieval history, philosophy, religion, patristics, and Byzantine studies, expanding the range of evidence standardly used to explore these questions. In exploring the malleability and potential overlapping of religious identities in late antiquity, as well as their variable expressions in response to different public and private contexts, it challenges some prominent scholarly paradigms. In particular, rhetoric and religious identity are here brought together and simultaneously interrogated to provide mutual illumination: in what way does a better understanding of rhetoric (its rules, forms, practices) enrich our understanding of the expression of late-antique religious identity? How does an understanding of how religious identity was ascribed, constructed, and contested provide us with a new perspective on rhetoric at work in late antiquity?
1: Richard Flower and Morwenna Ludlow: Introduction
PART I: THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITIES AND THEIR REPRESENTATION
2: Éric Rebillard: Approaching 'Religious Identity' in Late Antiquity
3: Aaron P. Johnson: The Rhetoric of Pagan Religious Identities: Porphyry and his First Readers
4: Douglas Boin: The Maccabees, 'Apostasy' and Julian's Appropriation of Hellenismos as a Reclaimed Epithet in Christian Conversations of the Fourth Century C.E.
PART II: AGENTS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY
5: Shaun Tougher: Julian the Apologist: Christians and Pagans on the Mother of the Gods
6: Susanna Elm: Bodies, Books, Histories: Augustine of Hippo and the Extraordinary (civ. Dei 16.8 and Pliny, HN 7)
7: Raffaella Cribiore: Classical Decadence or Christian Aesthetics? Libanius, John Chrysostom, and Augustine on Rhetoric
8: Nicholas Baker-Brian: 'Very great are your words': Dialogue as Rhetoric in Manichaean Kephalaia
9: Maijastina Kahlos: 'A Christian Cannot Employ Magic': Rhetorical Self-fashioning of the Magicless Christianity of Late Antiquity
PART III: MODES OF THE REPRESENTATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY
10: Mark Humphries: The Rhetorical Construction of a Christian Empire in the Theodosian Code
11: Peter Van Nuffelen: What Happened after Eusebius? Chronicles and Narrative Identities in the Fourth Century
12: Richard Flower: The Rhetoric of Heresiological Prefaces
13: Robin M. Jensen: Constructing Identity in the Tomb: The Visual Rhetoric of Early Christian Iconography
14: Hajnalka Tamas: Renunciation and Ascetic Identity in the Liber ad Renatum of Asterius Ansedunensis
15: Morwenna Ludlow: Christian Literary Identity and Rhetoric about Style
The strongest essays of this collection are those that work with a clear set of definitions and methods. Part One is by far the most useful section of the book and will repay the attention of readers since issues of identity and rhetoric are at the forefront. * Harry O. Maier, Vancouver School of Theology, ARYS: Antiquity, Religions and Societies * rhetoric and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity instructs with rich insights, delights with its wide array of subjects, and ultimately proves persuasive of its core argument about rhetorical representation among late antique religions. * Mark Clavier, Augustiniana * In many cases, the essays break down dichotomies and remind us to be careful when trying to fit people or texts into particular categories of religious identity. The editors' goal was to study rhetoric in order to better understand religious identity and vice-versa, and the volume succeeds on both counts. * Jaclyn Maxwell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *