The Complexity of Conversion: Intersectional Perspectives on Religious Change in Antiquity and Beyond (Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture) - Hardcover

Marianne Bjelland Kartzow

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178179572X ISBN 13: 9781781795729

Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2020

Synopsis

Today, conversion is a contested religious, political, and personal phenomenon, and that was also the case in the ancient world. Using several primary sources (Jewish and Christian) and case studies, this volume discusses what this change could have meant for various individuals or groups of people in the ancient world and argues that conversion can best be understood through an intersectional perspective, an approach that includes gender, class, ethnicity, and age, as well as political and economic elements in its analysis of conversion. The volume also acknowledges that a discussion of conversion benefits from taking into account conversion's history of reception. Case studies from the reception history as well as contemporary examples of contested conversions (for example, from Christianity to Islam or vice versa) are also brought to the table. In sum, the book addresses the complexity of conversion, using a range of cases, texts and theories, and initiates a dialogue between ancient sources and present concepts or practices. Close readings of ancient texts play a central role in the project. Yet, the book also considers how sacred texts and their receptions have influenced the way we generally think about conversation as religious change.

About this title

About the Author

Valerie Nicolet is maitre de conferences at the Institut protestant de theologie, faculte de Paris, where she teaches New Testament and Ancient Greek. Marianne Bjelland Kartzow is professor of New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway.

Edition details

• Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178179572X
• ISBN 13: 9781781795729
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 220
• Editor: Kartzow Marianne, Nicolet Valerie