Jephthah's daughter, Sarah's son : the death of children in late antiquity / Maria E. Doerfler

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doerfler, Maria, Author.

Series:

Christianity in Late Antiquity ; 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Old Testament--Criticism, interpretation, etc--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Bible.

Children--Death--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Children.

Parental grief--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Parental grief.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 pages)

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Late antiquity was a perilous time for children, who were often the first victims of economic crisis, war, and disease. They had a one in three chance of dying before their first birthday, with as many as half dying before age ten. Christian writers accordingly sought to speak to the experience of bereavement and to provide cultural scripts for parents who had lost a child. These late ancient writers turned to characters like Eve and Sarah, Job and Jephthah as models for grieving and for confronting or submitting to the divine. Jephthah's Daughter, Sarah’s Son traces the stories these writers crafted and the ways in which they shaped the lived experience of familial bereavement in ancient Christianity. A compelling social history that conveys the emotional lives of people in the late ancient world, Jephthah's Daughter, Sarah's Son is a powerful portrait of mourning that extends beyond antiquity to the present day.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

(Premature) Death as a Good. An Introduction

1. Children’s Deaths in Late Antiquity in Ritual and Historical Perspective

2. East of Eden

3. Mourning Sarah’s Son

4. Echoes of the Akedah

5. Death, Demons, and Disaster

6. Children and the Sword

Conclusion. Children in the Quicksand

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jun 2020)

ISBN:

9780520972964

0520972961

OCLC:

1163877851