ABSTRACT
Focusing on the language of pollution and disgust that permeates the writings of Emperor Julian (361–3 CE) on the topic of the worship by Christians of corpses, Mayer appeals to Moral Foundations Theory and other recent research on cognition. Understanding the agency of language in activating subconscious moral judgements, she argues, is helpful for explaining how, despite his policy of religious tolerance, Julian’s discourse escalated anti-Christian sentiment, on the one hand, and hostility on the part of Christians, on the other. The after-effects at Antioch are traced through the presbyter John Chrysostom’s discourses against the Jews and in praise of his anti-Julian model, the apostle Paul.
