Religious Violence in the Ancient World

From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity

Jitse H. F. Dijkstra, Christian R. Raschle

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781108494908
• eBook ISBN: 9781108849531
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• A Note on Abbreviations
• General Introduction
• Part I Methodology
• Part II Religious Violence in the Graeco-Roman World
• Part III Religious Violence in Late Antiquity
• Index of Sources
• General Index