Kirjat

The century from c. 350 to c. 450 CE stretches approximately from Constantius II’s reign until the end of Theodosius II’s and covers the most crucial years of Christianization of the Roman Empire. This period witnessed a significant shift from a world of polytheistic religions to one dominated by Christian worship.

However, this shift should not be understood teleologically. In the fourth century, a wide variety of religions, cults, sects, beliefs, and practices co-existed and evolved in the Mediterranean world. This co-existence of different religious groups sometimes led to violence, but these outbreaks seem to have been relatively infrequent and localized. This book explores the impact these changes had on the position and life of different religious groups.

The groups under consideration are pagans and heretics, which are terms of convenience: “pagans” for non-Christians or polytheists, and “heretics” for Christians marked as deviants. Rather than presenting another narrative of Christian-pagan relations, the book provides a detailed analysis of several central themes—limits of legislation, the end of sacrifices, the label of magic, and the categorization of dissidents into groups—tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious believers.

By shedding new light on the relations of various religious groups in the fourth and fifth centuries, Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350–450 will be valuable to all scholars of the later Roman Empire and early Christianity.

“In Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, Kahlos offers a multifaceted gem.”
—Paula Fredriksen, in Review of Biblical Literature 1 (2021)

”Overall, this book is a credit to Kahlos’s training and expertise. Her arrangement of the sources alongside compelling close readings of well-trodden texts compels the reader to carefully consider the varied and diverse religious investments, modes of othering, and discursive power plays actively at work in the late ancient world. Kahlos is a wonderfully clear writer and a helpful exegete. This monograph thus comes highly recommended for scholars interested in a refreshing and organized study on religious conflict in the late ancient Roman Empire.”   —Jennifer Barry, in Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 25.3 (2021)

“Incorporating evidence drawn from archaeology and the law codes, and recent work on the importance of identity formation and boundary maintenance, Kahlos offers a fresh way to understand a range of problems that have bedeviled scholars of this troubled age. Her scholarship is meticulous and comprehensive, and her book will be useful to both beginning and advanced students.”
—H. A. Drake, University of California at Santa Barbara

“Kahlos has explored with great skill and nuance the complex contours of religious conflict in Late Antiquity. At the heart of her study is the question of what happens when the rhetoric of empire and the ‘triumphant’ Christian church meets the realities of local religious beliefs and practices. She works with an impressive breadth and depth of sources, and her book converses critically with contemporary scholarship and makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion.”
—Young Richard Kim, Onassis Foundation USA 

Buy: Oxford University Press

Publisher: Oxford University Press / Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity

ISBN: 9780190067250