The aesthetics of hope in late Greek imperial literature : Methodius of Olympus' Symposium and the crisis of the third century / Dawn LaValle Norman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

LaValle Norman, Dawn, author.

Series:

Greek culture in the Roman world

Greek culture in the Roman World

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Methodius, of Olympus, Saint, -311. Symposium.

Methodius.

Christian literature, Early--History and criticism.

Christian literature, Early.

Physical Description:

viii, 287 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Summary:

This book sheds light on a relatively dark period of literary history, the late third century CE, a period that falls between the Second Sophistic and Late Antiquity. It argues that more was being written during this time than past scholars have realized and takes as its prime example the understudied Christian writer Methodius of Olympus. Among his many works, this book focuses on his dialogic Symposium, a text which exposes an era's new concern to re-orient the gaze of a generation from the past onto the future. Dr LaValle Norman makes the further argument that scholarship on the Imperial period that does not include Christian writers within its purview misses the richness of this period, which was one of deepening interaction between Christian and non-Christian writers. Only through recovering this conversation can we understand the transitional period that led to the rise of Constantine.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781108494175

110849417X

OCLC:

1127171510

Publisher Number:

99983650621