Ritual Boundaries
Magic and Differentiation in Late Antique Christianity
Author(s)
Sanzo, Joseph E.
Collection
European Research Council (ERC)Language
EnglishAbstract
In Ritual Boundaries, Joseph E. Sanzo transforms our understanding of how early Christians experienced religion in lived practice through the study of magical objects, such as amulets and grimoires. Against the prevailing view of late antiquity as a time when only so-called elites were interested in religious and ritual differentiation, the evidence presented here reveals that the desire to distinguish between religious and ritual insiders and outsiders cut across diverse social strata. Sanzo’s examination of the magical also offers unique insight into early biblical reception, exposing a textual world in which scriptural reading was multisensory and multitraditional. As they addressed sickness, demonic struggle, and interpersonal conflicts, Mediterranean people thus acted in ways that challenge our conceptual boundaries between Christians and non-Christians; elites and non-elites; and words, materials, and images. Sanzo helps us rethink how early Christians imagined similarity and difference among texts, traditions, groups, and rituals as they went about their daily lives.
Keywords
early christianity; religion; magical objects; ritualsDOI
10.1525/luminos.182ISBN
9780520399181, 9780520399198Publisher
University of California PressPublisher website
https://www.ucpress.edu/Publication date and place
Oakland, 2024Classification
Christianity