W. Mayer and C.L. de Wet (eds.), Reconceiving Religious Conflict (Routledge; New York, NY: 2018)

Reconceiving Religious Conflict deconstructs instances of religious conflict within the formative centuries of Christianity, the first six centuries CE. It explores the theoretical foundations of religious conflict; the dynamics of religious conflict within the context of persecution and martyrdom; the social and moral intersections that undergird the phenomenon of religious conflict; and the relationship between religious conflict and religious identity. It is unique in that it does not solely focus on religious violence as it is physically manifested, but on religious conflict (and tolerance), looking too at dynamics of religious discourse and practice that often precede and accompany overt religious violence.

Reconceiving Religious Conflict is an excellent addition to the growing body of scholarship on religion and violence. The bibliographies that accompany each chapter are exceptional and include ancient writings that have often been overlooked. At the same time, each chapter includes the application of models and methodologies that help to illuminate a more fine-tuned analysis of this literature. (Rebecca I. Donova, Review in Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion.)

Contents

W. Mayer, ‘Re-theorizing religious conflict: early Christianity to late antiquity and beyond’

J. Bremmer, ‘Religious violence and its roots: a view from antiquity’

P.J.J. Botha, ‘Blindness in early Christianity: tracking the fundamentals of religious conflict’

C.L. de Wet, ‘Religious conflict, radicalism, and sexual exceptionalism in the rhetoric of John Chrysostom’

C. Shepardson, ‘Give it up for God: wealth, suffering, and the rhetoric of religious persecution in John of Ephesus’s Church History’

A.H. Cadwallader, ‘Epiphanies and religious conflict: the contests over the Hagiasma of Chonai’

C. Stenschke, ‘Contested domains in the conflicts between the early Christian mission and Diaspora Judaism according to the Book of Acts’

M. Kahlos, ‘Christianisation and late antique patronage: conflicts and everyday nuisances’

J.H.F. Dijkstra, ‘Religious violence in late antique Egypt reconsidered: the cases of Alexandria, Panopolis, and Philae’

P. Van Nuffelen, ‘"A wise madness": a virtue-based model for crowd behaviour in late antiquity’

E.D. Digeser, ‘Collaboration and identity in the aftermath of persecution: religious conflict and its legacy’

G. van den Heever, ‘The usefulness of violent ends: apocalyptic imaginaries in the reconstruction of society’