• Matters (Un-)Becoming: Conversions in Epiphanius of Salamis

    Author(s):
    Andrew Jacobs (see profile)
    Date:
    2012
    Group(s):
    Ancient Jew Review, Late Antiquity, Religious Studies
    Subject(s):
    Ancient history, History of religions, Religious studies
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Conversion, Epiphanius, Jewish-Christian Relations, Late antiquity
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/M67C9H
    Abstract:
    In this essay, I reconsider early Christian conversion through the writings of Epiphanius of Salamis (d. 404 C.E.). Far from the notion of conversion as an interior movement of soul (familiar from Augustine, A.D. Nock, and William James), Epiphanius shows us a variety of conversions—from lay to clergy, from orthodox to heretic, and from Jew to Christian—in the social and cultural context of empire. Epiphanius can help us reconsider late-ancient conversion not as the internal reorientation to a “new life,” but instead the exteriorized management of status and difference. As Epiphanius crafts conversion as the site of masterful intervention, he also conjures the failure of control, the blurring of boundaries, and collapse of frontiers that haunts the imperial Christian imagination.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    doi.org/10.1017/S0009640711001764
    Publisher:
    Cambridge University Press (CUP)
    Pub. Date:
    2012-3-7
    Journal:
    Church History
    Volume:
    81
    Issue:
    01
    Page Range:
    27 - 47
    ISSN:
    0009-6407,1755-2613
    Status:
    Last Updated:
    7 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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