Christianizing Egypt : syncretism and local Worlds in Late Antiquity / David Frankfurter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Frankfurter, David, author.

Series:

Martin classical lectures.

Martin Classical Lectures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Syncretism (Religion)--Egypt.

Syncretism (Religion).

Christianity and other religions--Egyptian.

Christianity and other religions.

Egypt--Religion--332 B.C.-640 A.D.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in the various social and creative worlds active in Egyptian culture during late antiquity.As David Frankfurter shows, members of these different social and creative worlds came to create different forms of Christianity according to their specific interests, their traditional idioms, and their sense of what the religion could offer. Reintroducing the term "syncretism" for the inevitable and continuous process by which a religion is acculturated, the book addresses the various formations of Egyptian Christianity that developed in the domestic sphere, the worlds of holy men and saints' shrines, the work of craftsmen and artisans, the culture of monastic scribes, and the reimagination of the landscape itself, through processions, architecture, and the potent remains of the past.Drawing on sermons and magical texts, saints' lives and figurines, letters and amulets, and comparisons with Christianization elsewhere in the Roman empire and beyond, Christianizing Egypt reconceives religious change-from the "conversion" of hearts and minds to the selective incorporation and application of strategies for protection, authority, and efficacy, and for imagining the environment.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Remodeling the Christianization of Egypt

Chapter 2. Domestic Devotion and Religious Change

Chapter 3. Controller of Demons, Dispenser of Blessings

Chapter 4. A Site of Blessings, Dreams, and Wonders

Chapter 5. The Magic of Craft

Chapter 6. Scribality and Syncretism

Chapter 7. Whispering Spirits, Holy Processions

Afterword

Bibliography

Illustration Credits

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781400888009

140088800X

OCLC:

1007291599