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Full Description
The emperor Julian pointed out that the duties of priesthood were better
understood among 'the impious Galileans' (i.e. Christians) than among
his pagan contemporaries. Like the emperor, the essays in this volume
look in both directions. Its pages are populated by very diverse
figures: Plutach, Aelius Aristides, Alexander of Abonouteichos, Daniel
the Stylite, Gregory of Nazianzus, Shenoute of Atripe, Mani, Muhammad,
and a host of anonymous Greek and Roman priests, prophets, and diviners.
The priests of second temple Judaism are considered too. Both in the
Greco-Roman and the early Christian worlds the neat division between
priests and prophets proves hard to sustain. But in terms of fame and
influence a strong contrast emerges between Greco-Roman and
Judeo-Christian prophets; this is why it is only among Jews and
Christians that 'false prophets' are feared. Two recurrent
preoccupations are the relation of priests and prophets to secular
power, and the priest/prophet not as reality but as idea, an imagined
figure. Leading scholars of the religions of antiquity come together in
this wide-ranging and innovative volume.
