Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450

Maijastina Kahlos is University researcher and Docent of Latin language and Roman literature at University of Helsinki and author of Forbearance and Compulsion: Rhetoric of Tolerance and Intolerance in Late Antiquity and Debate and Dialogue: Christian and Pagan Cultures, c. 360-430.

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: Rhetoric and realitiesSECTION ONE: Imperial and ecclesiastical authority Chapter 1 The emperor and the dissenters Chapter 2 The realities of legislation Chapter 3 The bishops and the dissenters Chapter 4 The local limits of imperial and ecclesiastical power Chapter 5 Authority and aggression SECTION TWO: People in rhetoric and realities Chapter 6 Individuals, groups, and plural possibilities in Late AntiquityChapter 7 Otherness outside: Making pagans Chapter 8 Deviance or otherness inside: Construing heretics Chapter 9 Reactions SECTION THREE: Time, place, practicesChapter 10 The transformation of practices Chapter 11 Economics of practices Chapter 12 Sacred places and spaces Chapter 13 Sacred times and spaces Chapter 14 Rhetoric and realities of magicConclusion: The darkening age or the victory of John Doe? Bibliography Index locorum

Overall, this book is a credit to Kahlos's training and expertise. Her arrangement of the sources alongside compelling close readings of well-trodden texts compels the reader to carefully consider the varied and diverse religious investments, modes of othering, and discursive power plays actively at work in the late ancient world. Kahlos is a wonderfully clear writer and a helpful exegete. This monograph thus comes highly recommended for scholars interested in a refreshing and organized study on religious conflict in the late ancient Roman Empire.