Nathan Leach – författare

This collection of essays from a diverse group of internationally recognized scholars builds on the work of Steven J. Friesen to analyze the material and ideological dimensions of John’s Apocalypse and the religious landscape of the Roman East.Readers will gain new perspectives on the interpretation of John’s Apocalypse, the religion of Hellenistic cities in the Roman Empire, and the political and economic forces that shaped life in the Eastern Mediterranean. The chapters in this volume examine texts and material culture through carefully localized analysis that attends to ideological and socioeconomic contexts, expanding upon aspects of Friesen’s research and methodology while also forging new directions. The book brings together a diverse and international set of experts including emerging voices in the fields of biblical studies, Roman social history, and classical archeology, and each essay presents fresh, critically informed analysis of key sites and texts from the periods of Christian origins and Roman imperial rule.Revelation and Material Religion in the Roman East is of interest to students and scholars working on Christian origins, ancient Judaism, Roman religion, classical archeology, and the social history of the Roman Empire, as well as material religion in the ancient Mediterranean more broadly. It is also suitable for religious practitioners within Christian contexts.

This collection of essays from a diverse group of internationally recognized scholars builds on the work of Steven J. Friesen to analyze the material and ideological dimensions of John’s Apocalypse and the religious landscape of the Roman East.Readers will gain new perspectives on the interpretation of John’s Apocalypse, the religion of Hellenistic cities in the Roman Empire, and the political and economic forces that shaped life in the Eastern Mediterranean. The chapters in this volume examine texts and material culture through carefully localized analysis that attends to ideological and socioeconomic contexts, expanding upon aspects of Friesen’s research and methodology while also forging new directions. The book brings together a diverse and international set of experts including emerging voices in the fields of biblical studies, Roman social history, and classical archeology, and each essay presents fresh, critically informed analysis of key sites and texts from the periods of Christian origins and Roman imperial rule.Revelation and Material Religion in the Roman East is of interest to students and scholars working on Christian origins, ancient Judaism, Roman religion, classical archeology, and the social history of the Roman Empire, as well as material religion in the ancient Mediterranean more broadly. It is also suitable for religious practitioners within Christian contexts.

The Book of Revelation has been read as a literary prophecy, an allegorical divination narrative, or a piece of persuasive rhetoric. In this new approach to the apocalyptic text, Nathan Leach argues that Revelation’s oral performance to Christ-following assemblies in the ritual settings of the late 1st century CE formed an experience that resonated deeply with wider divinatory practices in Roman Asia.Revelation as Divination uses an interdisciplinary theoretical repertoire including performance criticism, ritual studies, material culture and affect theory to show how Revelation created meaning through oral performance to its ancient participatory audience. Despite Revelation’s extreme social separatist polemic, it is through the performance’s experiential resonance with broader ancient Mediterranean divinatory practices that its production of divine presence and access to divine knowledge were socially readable, gained authenticity, and affected its participants.

The Book of Revelation has been read as a literary prophecy, an allegorical divination narrative, or a piece of persuasive rhetoric. In this new approach to the apocalyptic text, Nathan Leach argues that Revelation’s oral performance to Christ-following assemblies in the ritual settings of the late 1st century CE formed an experience that resonated deeply with wider divinatory practices in Roman Asia.Revelation as Divination uses an interdisciplinary theoretical repertoire including performance criticism, ritual studies, material culture and affect theory to show how Revelation created meaning through oral performance to its ancient participatory audience. Despite Revelation’s extreme social separatist polemic, it is through the performance’s experiential resonance with broader ancient Mediterranean divinatory practices that its production of divine presence and access to divine knowledge were socially readable, gained authenticity, and affected its participants.