Dohrmann and Reed (eds.) Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire

NEW BOOK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS:

Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire
The Poetics of Power in Late Antiquity
Natalie B. Dohrmann and Annette Yoshiko Reed, Editors

456 pages | 6 x 9 | 12 illus.
Cloth Sep 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4533-2 | $69.95s | £45.50 | Add to cart
Ebook Sep 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-0857-3 | $69.95s | £45.50 | About | Add to cart
A volume in the Jewish Culture and Contexts series
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"Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire, beginning with the editors' fundamental historiographical and programmatic essay, is the most important collection of studies on Jews in late antiquity I have ever seen. In fact, it is essential reading for all students of late antiquity. Especially admirable is the book's implicit argument that late antiquity was constituted not by a single seismic shift, but by the slow accretion of small changes over time."—Seth Schwartz, Columbia University

In histories of ancient Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire looms large. For all the attention to the Jewish Revolt and other conflicts, however, there has been less concern for situating Jews within Roman imperial contexts; just as Jews are frequently dismissed as atypical by scholars of Roman history, so Rome remains invisible in many studies of rabbinic and other Jewish sources written under Roman rule.

Jews, Christians, and the Roman Empire brings Jewish perspectives to bear on longstanding debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity. Focusing on the third to sixth centuries, it draws together specialists in Jewish and Christian history, law, literature, poetry, and art. Perspectives from rabbinic and patristic sources are juxtaposed with evidence from piyyutim, documentary papyri, and synagogue and church mosaics. Through these case studies, contributors highlight paradoxes, subtleties, and ironies of Romanness and imperial power.

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