Imperialism and Jewish Society 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E.
By Seth Schwartz
Princeton University Press
(new in paperback)
336pp., $19.95
The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000
By Peter Brown
Oxford
Blackwell Publishing
625pp., $29.95
in the Jerusalem Post. Excerpt:
The flaw in historical study characteristic of both works is the absence of perspective afforded through comparison. Schwartz gives attention to Judaism, but none to the other Near Eastern religions affected by the same international politics. S. K. Eddy's The King is Dead: Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334-31 B.C. - missing from Schwartz's bibliography - is an example of the right way to do such work.
For his part, Brown avoids comparing and contrasting because he utterly ignores Judaism - a principal party to the great historical events of late antiquity - whether with regard to the advent of the Christian Empire or the rise of Islam. His history acts out standard Christian replacement theology; Judaism just doesn't register.
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