Dreams and Divination from Byzantium to Baghdad, 400-1000 CE

Bronwen Neil is Professor of Ancient and Byzantine History at Macquarie University, and foundation director of the Macquarie University Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment (CACHE). She works on Greek and Latin literature of the first millennium CE, and the history of religious ideas and their influence on culture in this period.

• Abbreviations 1: Why Dreams Mattered in Late Antiquity 2: Scriptural Models of Dream Interpretation 3: Dreambooks: A Rival Tradition of Authority 4: Channeling the Divine: From Paganism to Monotheism 5: The Trouble with Dreams: Sayings of Monks, Rabbis, and the Prophet 6: Dreams and the Material World: New Developments 7: In the Footsteps of the Prophets: Dreams of War Epilogue: Why Dreams Still Matter Bibliography

By connecting these cultures, their worldviews and practices, Neil's book makes for an excellent piece of interdisciplinary and intercultural research whose impact exceeds the academia, providing deep insights into the world we live in. By unveiling the roots of these worldviews and practices, her monograph, therefore, does more than fill a gap in the literature; it advances our grasp of the things we see happening in the world. I wholeheartedly recommend this monograph to scholars and students of the Abrahamic religions, of dream and divination, and to whoever seeks to understand the world in which we live.