Andrew Cain

Late Antiquity witnessed a dramatic recalibration in the economy of power, and nowhere was this more pronounced than in the realm of religion. The transformations that occurred in this pivotal era moved the ancient world into the Middle Ages and forever changed the way that religion was practiced. The twenty eight studies in this volume explore this shift using evidence ranging from Latin poetic texts, to Syriac letter collections, to the iconography of Roman churches and Merowingian mortuary goods. They range in chronology from the late third through the early seventh centuries AD and apply varied theories and approaches. All converge around the notion that religion is fundamentally a discourse of power and that power in Late Antiquity was especially charged with the force of religion. The articles are divided into eight sections which examine the power of religion in literature, theurgical power over the divine, emperors and the deployment of religious power, limitations on the power of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the use of the cross as a symbol of power, Rome and its transformation as a center of power, the power of religion in the barbarian west, and religious power in the communities of the east. This kaleidoscope of perspectives creates a richly illuminating volume that add a new social and political dimension to current debates about religion in Late Antiquity.

The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity

In the centuries following his death, Jerome (c.347-420) was venerated as a saint and as one of the four Doctors of the Latin church. In his own lifetime, however, he was a severely marginalized figure whose intellectual and spiritual authority did not go unchallenged, at times even by those in his inner circle. His ascetic theology was rejected by the vast majority of Christian contemporaries, his Hebrew scholarship was called into question by the leading Biblical authorities of the day, and the reputation he cultivated as a pious monk was compromised by allegations of moral impropriety with some of his female disciples. In view of the extremely problematic nature of his profile, how did Jerome seek to bring credibility to himself and his various causes? In this book, the first of its kind in any language, Andrew Cain answers this crucial question through a systematic examination of Jerome's idealized self-presentation across the whole range of his extant epistolary corpus. Modern scholars overwhelmingly either access the letters as historical sources or appreciate their aesthetic properties. Cain offers a new approach and explores the largely neglected but nonetheless fundamental propagandistic dimension of the correspondence. In particular, he proposes theories about how, and above all why, Jerome used individual letters and letter-collections to bid for status as an expert on the Bible and ascetic spirituality.

Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity

The Letters of Jerome

Gregory Hays

Studies by twenty-seven scholars in honor of the distinguished Latinist Danuta Shanzer.00Over the course of her career Danuta Shanzer has contributed multifariously to the study of late antique and medieval Latin, as scholar, teacher, conference organizer, and journal and series editor. Author of a ground-breaking commentary on Book 1 of Martianus Capella?s 'De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii' and co-translator (with Ian Wood) of the letters of Avitus of Vienne, she has produced important articles on a wide range of Latin authors and texts, from Augustine to Gregory of Tours.0The contributors to this volume honour Shanzer?s achievement with studies related to her scholarly interests.

Studies in Honour of Danuta R. Shanzer

"Omnium Magistra Virtutum"

"Danuta Shanzer is a scholar of international caliber, and this volume honors her career on the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday (or thereabouts). Most of the contributors are current or former students, colleagues, collaborators and friends, from Oxford, Berkeley, Cornell, Illinois, the University of Vienna, and elsewhere. They have chosen topics appropriate in some way to the honoree's scholarly interests. The volume's center of gravity is in late antiquity and early medieval Gaul, but some contributions embrace a number of authors in whom Shanzer herself has been particularly interested (Augustine, Martianus Capella, Boethius, Avitus of Vienne, Gregory of Tours), but the range and variety of the volume is also representative of her approach to the field."--

Studies in Honour of Danuta Shanzer

Omnium Magistra Virtutum

A study of the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, one of the earliest pieces of monastic hagiography to survive in Greek. It was composed in the 390s by an anonymous monk living on the Mount of Olives and details a pilgrimage to Egypt. Despite its influence on subsequent Greek hagiography, the Historia Monachorum has been little studied in its own right. Dr Cain aims to address this by providing the first comprehensive study of the HistoriaMonachorum, encompassing literary, philological, historical, and theological perspectives.

Monastic Hagiography in the Late Fourth Century

The Greek Historia Monachorum in Aegypto

Jerome

Jerome's Commentary on Galatians is presented here in English translation in its entirety.

Andrew Cain

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