Aug 15, 2019 21:03
Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice by Richard Valantasis
An array of documents. Many Christian, including hymns, sermons, acts of martyrs and other accounts, but also Manichean, with hymns and a service, pagan, such as a spell tablet invoking Osiris to recapture a husband's attentions, Julian the Apostate arguing against Christianity, claiming that Solomon worshipped other gods because he was wise, an aretalogy of Isis listing her virtues, and a Mithradic liturgy, and various other things, such as Talmudic tales, and the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. A number were taken from incomplete documents, so the lacunae pile up, and some of the commentary begs the question a bit.
subject: history,
genre: non-fiction,
author: v,
review