Interpreting Late Antiquity

G. W. Bowersock is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. Peter Brown is Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Oleg Grabar was Professor Emeritus of Islamic Art and Architecture at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. Professor Dame Averil Cameron was formerly the Warden of Keble College Oxford and the holder of a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford. Christopher Kelly is University Reader in Ancient History, and Fellow and Director of Studies at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. Henry Maguire is a former Director of Byzantine Studies at Dumbarton Oaks and Professor of Art History at Johns Hopkins University.

Instead of relegating the late antiquity to the Gibbonian category of "Decline and Fall," the authors contributing to the present volume successfully attempt to consider this period in its own terms and without preconceived notions or value judgments, that is, as a time of monumental change, destruction, and reconstruction...This collection of essays truly brings to life the world of late antiquity in multiple fashions. The authors look both at East and West, they compare and contrast the role of Christianity and the role of the pagan religions. Their investigations rely not only on historical data, but also draw from recent research in archeology, art history, anthropology, and theology...All authors demonstrate a solid familiarity with most recent, especially international research.

• Introduction; Remaking the Past, by Averil Cameron; Sacred Landscapes, by Beatrice Caseau; Philosophical Tradition and the Self, by Henry Chadwick; Religious Communities, by Garth Fowden; Barbarians and Ethnicity, by Patrick J. Geary; War and Violence, by Brent D. Shaw; Empire Building, by Christopher Kelly; Christian Triumph and Controversy, by Richard Lim; Islam, by Hugh Kennedy; The Good Life, by Henry Maguire