Violence and belief in late antiquity : militant devotion in Christianity and Islam / Thomas Sizgorich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sizgorich, Thomas.

Series:

Divinations.

Divinations

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Violence.

Violence--Religious aspects--Islam.

Martyrdom--Christianity.

Martyrdom.

Martyrdom--Islam.

Identity (Psychology)--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Identity (Psychology).

Identity (Psychology)--Religious aspects--Islam.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 398 p. )

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2009.

Summary:

Focusing on the shared vocabulary of images and ideas with which late ancient Christians and Muslims imagined the past, present, and future, this book seeks to understand why violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-understandings of Christian and Muslim communities between the fourth and ninth centuries.

Contents:

"The devil spoke from Scripture" : boundary maintenance and communal integrity in late antiquity

"The living voice of kindred blood" : narrative, identity, and the primordial past

"What has the pious in common with the impious?" : Ambrose, Libanius, and the problem of late antique religious violence

"Are you Christians?" : violence, ascetics, and knowing one's own

"Horsemen by day and monks by night" : narrative and community in Islamic late antiquity

"The sword scrapes away transgressions" : ascetic praxis and communal boundaries in late antique Islam

"Do you not fear God?" : the Khawarij in early Islamic society

"This is a very filthy question and no one should discuss it" : the messy world of Ibn Ḥanbal.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-382) and index.