Death in the Eastern Mediterranean (50-600 A.D.)

Wie wurde die Nachricht von der Erlösung Christi aufgenommen? Antigone Samellas untersucht den griechischen und jüdischen Einfluß auf die griechische Eschatologie und sucht nach den hellenistischen Wurzeln der christlichen Trostphilosophie. Dabei ist von Interesse, in welchem Maße die neue Religion die existierenden Einstellungen zum Tod und die gebräuchlichen Funktionen der Trauer und Gedenkrituale beeinflußt hat. Ferner arbeitet die Autorin heraus, welche Aspekte des Christentums attraktiv und welche abstoßend für Heiden und Juden waren.50-600. An Era without Eschatological Anxieties- The Serene Look of the Polytheists at the Hereafter - Resurrection of the Body: An Absurd Idea, an Inextricable Philosophical Problem, a Variously-Interpreted Dogma
Philosophers and Bishops as Physicians of the Soul- Pagan and Christian Arguments against the Practice of Ritual Lament - Rival but Similar Therapies of Grief: the Philosophical and Christian Logos
The Impact of Christianity on Monumental Commemoration- The Christianization of the Epigraphic Language - From Ancient to Christian 'Likeness': The Eclipse of the Sculpted Funerary Portrait in its Intellectual and Historical Context
Putrid Corpses and Fragrant Relics: Attitudes towards the Pollution of the Dead among Pagans, Jews and Christians- Intellectual and Emotional Origins of a Tactile Revolution - The Sacralization of Death
Functions of the Funerary and Commemorative Rituals in the Eastern Mediterranean (50-600)- The Ideological Function of Ritual - The Honorific Function of Ritual - The Solidaristic and Affective Functions of Ritual - The Originality of the Christian Organization of Burial: The Use of Ritual as a Means of Forging a Separate Religious Identity
The Burial of the Poor: Forces that Propel and Forces that Hinder the Development of a Christian 'Welfare State' in Late Antiquity- Theology, Heresy and Social Welfare - Structural Weaknesses of the Christian 'Welfare State'
The 'Longue-Durée' Pleasures of Death - Feasting with the Dead- A Grave-Side Theatre