The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World: Volume 2, From the Hellenistic Age to Late Antiquity

Description

The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the religions of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The nineteen essays in this volume begin with the Hellenistic age and extend to the late Roman period. Its contributors, all acknowledged experts in their fields, analyze a wide spectrum of textual and material evidence. An essay by the General Editor sets out the central questions, themes and historical trends considered in Volumes I and II. An essay by William Adler introduces the chapters of Volume II. The regional and historical orientations of the essays will enable readers to see how a religious tradition or movement assumed a distinctive local identity and consider its development within a broader regional and Mediterranean context. Supplemented with maps, illustrations and detailed indexes, the volume is an excellent reference tool for scholars of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world.

William Adler is Professor of Early Christianity and Judaism in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. He has authored or co-authored five books dealing with early Christian literature and historiography, and has served as a visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting research scholar at the University of Adelaide, University of Jena and the University of Basel. Michele Renee Salzman is Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of three books and numerous articles, including On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (1990), The Making of a Christian Aristocracy (2002) and (with Michael Roberts) The First Book of Symmachus' Letters, a translation, introduction and commentary (2011). She is on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Archaeology and on the Executive Committee of the American Academy in Rome.