In this article, I want to contextualize the term polupragmosunē as it is used in the works of other writers in the Roman imperial period (particularly Plutarch, Apuleius, Lucian, and Tertullian) and demonstrate how polupragmosunē is a key component of Diognetus’s anti-Jewish rhetoric and construction of uniquely Christian knowledge.
Read MoreDissertation Spotlight | Enslavement to God among Early Christians
I wanted to make this intervention because the ubiquity of humans being described as enslaved to God or Christ is easy to miss. As Clarice Martin demonstrated in her 1990 article on womanist biblical interpretation and inclusive translation, scholars and translators have often disguised or euphemized language of enslavement because of a discomfort with acknowledging the presence of enslaved people within the pages of the Bible. I argue that the process of undoing euphemistic translation and uncovering the presence and logics of enslavement in Jewish and Christian literature does not stop with those depicted as enslaved to humans, but extends to those depicted as enslaved to deities.
Read MoreBook Note | Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination
Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination is a broad-ranging and accessible treatment of how late ancient writers engaged with pharaonic history and culture in the midst of the Christianization of Egypt.
Read MoreBook Note | The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian Versus Greek in Late Antiquity
Fournet’s The Rise of Coptic is a substantial and accessible contribution to the ongoing discussion of bilingualism and multilingualism in the ancient world.
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