Benjamin A. Edsall – författare

This volume brings together experts in ancient Mediterranean societies to explore ways in which space (real and imagined, lived and projected) contributed to conceptualisations of communal “flourishing” in Early Christianity and its broad ancient context.How to live well, or “flourish”, has long been an object of theorization; this volume approaches the issue of flourishing in Early Christianity from an historical perspective, exploring constructions of and conditions for flourishing in ancient literary, visual and material culture. An introductory chapter offers a theoretical and methodological framework for the book, while subsequent chapters examine the production of spaces (“ethnic,” urban, liturgical and religio-political) in ancient sources from the 5th century BCE to the 8th century CE, illuminating how they shape, enable or interrupt aspects of flourishing. By bringing flourishing and space together with the ancient sources, this volume offers an historically grounded account of flourishing which has the ability to clarify and balance these contemporary discussions.Balancing theory with detailed historiographical work, this book offers a crucial intervention in the field of Early Christian studies, suitable for students and scholars working on space and the spatial turn in Late Antiquity and Early Christianity.

The present volume is based on a conference held in October 2019 at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University Berlin as part of a common project of the Australian Catholic University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Humboldt University Berlin. The aim is to discuss the relationships of “Jews” and “Christians” in the first two centuries CE against the background of recent debates which have called into question the image of “parting ways” for a description of the relationships of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. One objection raised against this metaphor is that it accentuates differences at the expense of commonalities. Another critique is that this image looks from a later perspective at historical developments which can hardly be grasped with such a metaphor. It is more likely that distinctions between Jews, Christians, Jewish Christians, Christian Jews etc. are more blurred than the image of “parting ways” allows. In light of these considerations the contributions in this volume discuss the cogency of the “parting of the ways”-model with a look at prominent early Christian writers and places and suggest more appropriate metaphors to describe the relationships of Jews and Christians in the early period.

The present volume is based on a conference held in October 2019 at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University Berlin as part of a common project of the Australian Catholic University, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Humboldt University Berlin. The aim is to discuss the relationships of “Jews” and “Christians” in the first two centuries CE against the background of recent debates which have called into question the image of “parting ways” for a description of the relationships of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. One objection raised against this metaphor is that it accentuates differences at the expense of commonalities. Another critique is that this image looks from a later perspective at historical developments which can hardly be grasped with such a metaphor. It is more likely that distinctions between Jews, Christians, Jewish Christians, Christian Jews etc. are more blurred than the image of “parting ways” allows. In light of these considerations the contributions in this volume discuss the cogency of the “parting of the ways”-model with a look at prominent early Christian writers and places and suggest more appropriate metaphors to describe the relationships of Jews and Christians in the early period.