Conversion in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages
Subtitle: seeing and believing
By: edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton.
Contributors: Mills, Kenneth, 1964-; Grafton, Anthony.
Series: Studies in comparative history,
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Rochester, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 283
Subjects: Conversion -- Christianity -- History -- To 1500 -- Congresses.
Genres: Congresses.
Description: This volume explores religious conversion in late antique and early medieval Europe at a time when the utility of the concept is vigorously debated. Though conversion was commonly represented by ancient and early medieval writers as singular and personally momentous mental events, contributors to this volume find gradual and incomplete social processes lurking behind their words. A mixture of examples and approaches will both encourage a deepening of specialist knowledge and spark new thinking across a variety of sub-fields. The historical settings treated here stretch from the Roman Hellenism of Justin Martyr in the second century to the ninth-century programs of religious and moral correction by resourceful Carolingian reformers. Baptismal orations, funerary inscriptions, Christian narratives about the conversion of stage-performers, a bronze statue of Constantine, early Byzantine ethnographic writings, and re-located relics are among the book's imaginative points of entry. This focused collection of essays by leading scholars, and the afterword by Neil McLynn, should ignite conversations among students of religious conversion and related processes of cultural interaction, diffusion, and change both in the historical sub-fields of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and well beyond.--provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Inscriptions and conversions : Gregory of Nazianzus on baptism (Or. 38-40) / Susanna Elm; title: The politics of passing : Justin Martyr's conversion as a problem of "Hellenization" / Rebecca Lyman; title: Conversion and burial in the late Roman Empire / Eric Rebillard; title: Converting the un-Christianizable : the baptism of stage performers in late antiquity / Richard Lim; title: The many conversions of the emperor Constantine / Raymond Van Dam; title: Delivered from their ancient customs : Christianity and the question of cultural change in early Byzantine ethnography / Michael Maas; title: Emending evil ways and praising God's omnipotence : Einhard and the uses of Roman martyrs / Julia M.H. Smith; title: Seeing and believing : aspects of conversion from Antoninus Pius to Louis the Pious / Neil McLynn.