Classics

Antioch on the Orontes is of great importance for the formation of Hellenistic Judaism in the Diaspora and the emergence of Christianity. This volume shows the factors that influenced the shape and development of both religious communities from different specialist perspectives and emphasizes the religious-historical significance of Antioch.

Justin J. White proposes to reconceptualize the relationship between image and text in ancient Israel. Characterizing both as mixed forms of media, White argues that texts evoked images as a core component of their rhetoric. He identifies three text-specific axes of visual rhetoric – ekphrasis, visual imagination and material agency – referring to them as the »poetics of visuality.« The poetics of visuality help demonstrate how ancient Israelite images and texts are represented through metaphor, simile and synecdoche and are indicative of the metaphysics endemic to the ancient Near East.

In his sermons, Caesarius of Arles presents Christian teachings in an innovative manner and thereby initiates diverse educational processes among his listeners. Nicolás Manuel Anders explores these dynamics based on Late Antique sources and with recourse to the sociological framework of Pierre Bourdieu.

This volume examines ancient and early medieval libraries, handbooks, and encyclopedias as interrelated types of knowledge repositories by investigating their embeddedness in religious contexts and their religious functions or connotations. Selected case studies illuminate interactions between education and religion and sharpen the focus on how religion functions in ancient and medieval contexts.