ABSTRACT

Reconceiving Religious Conflict deconstructs instances of religious conflict within the formative centuries of Christianity, the first six centuries CE. It explores the theoretical foundations of religious conflict; the dynamics of religious conflict within the context of persecution and martyrdom; the social and moral intersections that undergird the phenomenon of religious conflict; and the relationship between religious conflict and religious identity. It is unique in that it does not solely focus on religious violence as it is physically manifested, but on religious conflict (and tolerance), looking too at dynamics of religious discourse and practice that often precede and accompany overt religious violence.

part I|42 pages

Foundations

chapter 1|27 pages

Re-theorizing religious conflict

Early Christianity to late antiquity and beyond

chapter 2|13 pages

Religious violence and its roots

A view from antiquity

part II|93 pages

Rhetorical and literary trajectories

chapter 3|25 pages

Blindness in early Christianity

Tracking the fundamentals of religious conflict

chapter 5|24 pages

Give it up for God

Wealth, suffering, and the rhetoric of religious persecution in John of Ephesus's Church History

chapter 6|26 pages

Epiphanies and religious conflict

The contests over the Hagiasma of Chonai

part IV|50 pages

Threats of violence

chapter 9|23 pages

Religious violence in late antique Egypt reconsidered

The cases of Alexandria, Panopolis, and Philae *

chapter 10|25 pages

“A wise madness”

A virtue-based model for crowd behaviour in late antiquity

part V|67 pages

Ancient and modern intersections

chapter 11|21 pages

Collaboration and identity in the aftermath of persecution

Religious conflict and its legacy

chapter 12|44 pages

The usefulness of violent ends

Apocalyptic imaginaries in the reconstruction of society