Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies

The essays in this provocative collection exemplify the innovations that have characterized the relatively new field of late ancient studies. Focused on civilizations clustered mainly around the Mediterranean, during the period between roughly 100 and 700 CE, scholars working in late ancient studies have brought history and cultural studies to bear on theology and religious studies. They have adopted the methods of the social sciences and humanities--particularly of sociology, cultural anthropology, and literary criticism. Following developments in those fields, scholars of late antiquity have emphasized cultural and social history and considerations of gender and sexuality. In so doing, they have revealed the late ancient world as far more varied than had previously been imagined. The contributors investigate three key concerns that have engaged scholars of late antiquity: gender, asceticism, and historiography. They consider Macrina's scar, Mary's voice, and the harlot's body as well as Augustine, Jovinian, Gregory Nazianzus, Julian, and Ephrem the Syrian. Whether examining how animal bodies figured as a means for understanding human passion and sexuality in the monastic communities of Egypt and Palestine or meditating on the almost modern epistemological crisis faced by Theoredet in attempting to overcome the barriers between the self and the wider world, these essays chart the work that has defined late ancient studies and point toward emerging theoretical and critical developments in the field. Contributors Daniel Boyarin Virginia Burrus David Brakke Averil Cameron Susanna Elm James E. Goehring Susan Ashbrook Harvey David G. Hunter Blake Leyerle Dale B. Martin Patricia Cox Miller Philip Rousseau Teresa Shaw Maureen A. Tilley Dennis Trout Mark Vessey