This book sheds light on a relatively dark period of literary history, the late third century CE, a period that falls between the Second Sophistic and Late Antiquity. It argues that more was being written during this time than past scholars have realized and takes as its prime example the understudied Christian writer Methodius of Olympus. Among his many works, this book focuses on his dialogic Symposium, a text which exposes an era's new concern to re-orient the gaze of a generation from the past onto the future. Dr LaValle Norman makes the further argument that scholarship on the Imperial period that does not include Christian writers within its purview misses the richness of this period, which was one of deepening interaction between Christian and non-Christian writers. Only through recovering this conversation can we understand the transitional period that led to the rise of Constantine.

‘... this book is rich in sophisticated insights, and the contrastive analysis with earlier literature makes it a highly stimulating reading well beyond the immediate subject of Methodius’ Symposium. The book stands as an invitation to scholars of imperial literature to look at Christian materials and to scholars of Christianity to look at non-Christian literature. The comparison with imperial literature is exceptionally fruitful and stimulating; at the same time, the author rightly indicates that future work on Methodius should further investigate the links to Christian literature ... Methodius’ Symposium, with LaValle Norman’s reading of it, is an important wake-up call for scholars of early Christianity and beyond.’

Alberto Rigolio Source: Bryn Mawr Classical Review

‘The standard of scholarship exhibited by this meticulously researched and elegantly written monograph is very high … LaValle Norman’s work deserves a wide readership, in the fields of both “Second Sophistic” and 'Late Antiquity' studies.’

Katerina Oikonomopoulou Source: Journal of Early Christian Studies