Overview

Death and rebirth was of vital importance to early Christians in late antiquity. In late antiquity, death was all encompassing. Mortality rates were high, plague and disease in urban areas struck at will, and one lived on the knife’s edge regarding one’s health. Religion filled a crucial role in this environment, offering an option for those who sought cure and comfort. Following death, the inhumed were memorialized, providing solace to family members through sculpture, painting, and epigraphy. This book offers a sustained interdisciplinary treatment of death and rebirth, a theme that early Christians (and scholars) found important. By analysing the theme of death and rebirth through various lenses, the contributors deepen our understanding of the early Christian funerary and liturgical practices as well as their engagement with other groups in the Empire.

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9781978701618

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Reviews

"Robin Jensen is one of the most eminent scholars of Early Christianity and has left a wide impact with her publications and her teaching. It is wonderful that both the scholar and the warm-hearted person is honored with contributions centered around one of the great themes of late antiquity, death and resurrection. The chapters, worked meticulously and inspired by a common love of research and friendship, add new and important insights. Honor to whom honor is due! --Jutta Dresken-Weiland, University of Göttingen This carefully edited and well-illustrated volume is a fitting tribute to Robin Jensen. All the authors have done an excellent job in keeping to the overarching theme of the volume, which makes it a valuable contribution to the scholarship on the attitudes towards death and rebirth in late antiquity. -- ""Bryn Mawr Classical Review"" This collection of essays is a rich and fitting tribute to Robin Jensen, whose work has so well illuminated the way art contributes to understanding early Christianity. In delving into the theme of death and rebirth in Christian iconography, inscriptions and literature the authors of these essays provide new insights that shed even more light on this fascinating and foundational era. --Joan Taylor, King's College London This is a signal collection of fresh essays on early Christian art in honour of Robin Margaret Jensen, perhaps the most major voice in the field of her generation. Written by visual and patristic experts and extensively illustrated, the papers place a series of themes germane to early Christian art within a wider social and cultural context. --Jas Elsner, Corpus Christi College, Oxford This rich collection of studies, ranging from cross amulets to funeral processions, each adroitly working across material and textual cultures, makes a fitting tribute to Robin Jensen and her legacy in the study of early Christianity. --David Frankfurter, Boston University This volume brings together the work of eleven scholars on various themes of death and rebirth in early Christianity. The articles celebrate the excellent contributions of Robin Jensen, whose pioneering work has re-tooled the field to include material evidence, including art, archaeology, and ritual. The volume presents articles whose innovative scholarship sheds new light on familiar ancient Christian texts, offering different perspectives. As such, it is a fitting tribute. --Vasiliki Limberis, Temple University, emerita"

Author Information

Lee M. Jefferson is the Nelson D. and Mary McDowell Rodes Associate Professor of Religion at Centre College.

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