Essays that broaden the historical scope and sharpen the parameters of competitive discourses

Scholars in the fields of late antique Christianity, neoplatonism, New Testament, art history, and rabbinics examine issues related to authority, identity, and change in religious and philosophical traditions of late antiquity. The specific focus of the volume is the examination of cultural producers and their particular viewpoints and agendas in an attempt to shed new light on the religious thinkers, texts, and material remains of late antiquity. The essays explore the major creative movements of the era, examining the strategies used to develop and designate orthodoxies and orthopraxies. This collection of essays reinterprets dialogues between individuals and groups, illuminating the mutual competition and influence among these ancient thinkers and communities.

Features:

• Essays feature competitive discourse as the central organizing theme


• Articles present unique theoretical models that are adaptable to different contexts and highly applicable to religious discourses before and after the Late Antique Period


• Scholars cover a much wider range of traditions including Judaism, Christianity, paganism, and philosophy in order to provide the most complete portrait of the religious landscape
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Nathaniel P. DesRosiers is Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Stonehill College, where he teaches courses in New Testament, and Early Christianity. He is co-editor of Religious Competition in the Third Century CE: Jews, Christians and the Greco-Roman World (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht), and A Most Reliable Witness: Essays in Honor of Ross Shepard Kraemer (Brown Judaic Studies).

Lily C. Vuong is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Central Washington University, where she teaches courses in early Judaism and early Christianity. She is the author of Gender and Purity in the Protevangelium of James (Mohr Siebeck) and co-editor of Religious Competition in the Third Century CE: Jews, Christian and the Greco-Roman World (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht).