Book contents
- Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses
- Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Plates
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Note on the Cover
- Introduction: Curses, Religion, Aesthetics
- 1 Making Justice
- 2 Substance and Story
- Interlude
- 3 Tongues, Breath, Stutter
- 4 Incantation
- Conclusions
- Ancient Sources
- Bibliography
- Index of Ancient Sources
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Conclusions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 June 2024
- Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses
- Ancient Christians and the Power of Curses
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Plates
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Note on the Cover
- Introduction: Curses, Religion, Aesthetics
- 1 Making Justice
- 2 Substance and Story
- Interlude
- 3 Tongues, Breath, Stutter
- 4 Incantation
- Conclusions
- Ancient Sources
- Bibliography
- Index of Ancient Sources
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
When I was an undergraduate student, deeply clueless, around nineteen years old, I wandered into John Gager’s course “Ancient Christian Magic.” I had (shockingly) only recently realized that the Bible itself was something other than a unitary Word of God, excitingly and frighteningly more than a single book offered by one divine voice and spirit. Gager drenched unsuspecting undergraduates in understudied and (to me) surprising aspects of the history of ancient Christianity and of Mediterranean antiquity more generally. I can’t remember many details from the course. But I know it left me with at least two books that I’ve lugged around from school to school, job to job, home to home: an old, blandly toned gray-green print version of the first volume of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and Betz’s Greek Magical Papyri in Translation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ancient Christians and the Power of CursesMagic, Aesthetics, and Justice, pp. 261 - 267Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024