Conversion in Late Antiquity

The papers in this volume investigate the two important movements of conversion that frame late antiquity: Christianity and Islam. Despite their historical significance, those two movements of conversion have never been systematically compared to each other, and this volume attempts to do this by studying the various issues at stake in conversion f

Arietta Papaconstantinou is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics, University of Reading, UK; Neil McLynn is University Lecturer and Fellow in Later Roman History at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK; Daniel L. Schwartz is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Texas A&M University, USA.

Contents: In Memoriam: Thomas Sizgorich (1970-2011); Introduction, Arietta Papaconstantinou. Principles: Christian conversion in late antiquity: some issues, Averil Cameron; Christians and others: the conversion ethos of late antiquity, Polymnia Athanassiadi; Competing religious conversions and re-conversions in contemporary Mongolia, Vesna A. Wallace. Practice I Raison d'Ã-tat: From unholy madness to right-mindedness: or how to legislate for religious conformity from Decius to Justinian, Simon Corcoran; From Constantine the Great to Emperor Wu of the Liang: the rhetoric of imperial conversion and the divisive emergence of religious identities in late antique Eurasia, Antonello Palumbo; The diffusion, persecution and transformation of Manichaeism in late antiquity and pre-modern China, Samuel N.C. Lieu. Practice II Human Ambiguities: Narratives of violence: confronting pagans, Christopher Kelly; Mind the gap: accidental conversion and the hagiographic imaginary in the first centuries A.H., Thomas Sizgorich  ; Rural converters among the Arabs, Elizabeth Key Fowden; Conversion, apostasy, and penance: the shifting identities of Muslim converts in the early Islamic period, Uriel Simonsohn. Practice III Symbols and Institutions: The Rabbinic conversion to Judaism; The Rabbinic conversion of Judaism, Mosche Lavee; How to get rid of Venus: some remarks on Jerome's Vita Hilarionis and the conversion of Elusa in the Negev, Konstantin M. Klein; Conversion and environment in East Asia - The case of Buddhism, Max Deeg. Building Jerusalem: The conversion of Aelia Capitolina to Christianity in the 4th century, Jan Willem Drijvers; A Christian city with a major Muslim shrine: Jerusalem in the Umayyad period, Robert Schick. References; Primary sources; Bibliography; Index.