10 Results
Understanding Christianity Through Magical Objects
May 22 2024
Ritual Boundaries is part of the Christianity in Late Antiquity Series.By Joseph E. Sanzo, author of Ritual Boundaries: Magic and Differentiation in Late Antique ChristianityWhat do you do when you get sick? What do you do when you are afraid? The COVID-19 pandemic required many of us to
Q&A with Kyle Smith, Author of Cult of the Dead
Dec 01 2022
A cultural history of how Christianity was born from its martyrs.Though it promises eternal life, Christianity was forged in death. Christianity is built upon the legacies of the apostles and martyrs who chose to die rather than renounce the name of their lord. In this innovative cultural history, K
Remembering and Forgetting Saints Between Christianity and Islam
Nov 28 2022
By Reyhan Durmaz, author of Stories between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and BeyondWe all tell stories to create meaning. A far-gone event in a distant time and place often works as a lens through which we remember the past, interpret the presen
In Early Christianity, “Physical” Virginity Meant Many Different Things
Nov 16 2022
By Julia Kelto Lillis, author of Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity“Bodily” or “physical virginity” is one of the most used yet unclear phrases about virginity in academic and popular speech. Most who use it simply assume others know what they mean. For instance
The Deep History Lurking Behind Halloween
Oct 25 2022
By Kyle Smith, author of Cult of the Dead: A Brief History of ChristianityEvery October 31, when the pumpkins and black cats emerge, we hear that Halloween owes its origins to Samhain, the old Celtic harvest holiday when the veil separating the living and dead thins enough to be permeable. A
Teaching the Medieval through The Sea in the Middle
Aug 22 2022
By Brian Catlos, co-author of The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650–1650If Medieval Studies, as some say, has a “whiteness problem,” Mediterranean Studies does not. Recentering the narrative of the pre-Modern West on the region of the sea and the lands that surround it better refle
Reflections on Making Christian History
May 27 2022
By Michael Hollerich, author of Making Christian History: Eusebius of Caesarea and His ReadersAs I was finishing work on my new book, Making Christian History, Christopher Beeley—who at the time was the editor of the Christianity in Late Antiquity series—commented that I had been preparing my wh
Editor Spotlight: Meet our Premodern World History Editor, Eric Schmidt
Apr 12 2021
This post is part of our Editor Spotlight Series.For this year’s virtual American Historical Association conference, we connected with UC Press Premodern World History Senior Editor Eric Schmidt to talk about our program and what new projects he’s most excited about. Eric also shares how he
From Constantinople to the COVID-Era: Why Rituals Matter
Dec 01 2020
By Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos, author of Constantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial CapitalRitualized occasions—holy days and holidays, funerals and weddings, graduations and retirements, conferences, protests, and elections—are crucial for communities.
Rome’s Final Pagan Generation and America’s Climate Failure
Oct 21 2020
by Edward J. Watts, author of The Final Pagan Generation: Rome's Unexpected Path to ChristianityIn 392 AD, a Christian mob destroyed the Alexandrian temple of Serapis, the biggest and most impressive temple in the eastern Mediterranean. The six-hundred-year-old Serapeum complex had stood on