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John Chrysostom remains, along with Augustine, one of the most prolific witnesses to the world of late antiquity. As priest of Antioch and bishop of Constantinople, he earned his reputation as an extraordinary preacher.
In this first unified study of emotions in Chrysostom’s writings, Blake Leyerle examines the fourth-century preacher’s understanding of anger, grief, and fear. These difficult emotions, she argues, were central to Chrysostom’s program of ethical formation and were taught primarily through narrative means. In recounting the tales of scripture, Chrysostom consistently draws attention to the emotional tenor of these stories, highlighting biblical characters’ moods, discussing their rational underpinnings, and tracing the outcomes of their reactions. By showing how assiduously Chrysostom aimed not only to allay but also to arouse strong feelings in his audiences to combat humanity’s indifference and to inculcate zeal, Leyerle provides a fascinating portrait of late antiquity’s foremost preacher.
As Christian spaces and agents assumed prominent positions in civic life, the end of the long span of the fourth century was marked by large-scale religious change. Churches had overtaken once-thriving pagan temples, old civic priesthoods were replaced by prominent bishops, and the rituals of the city were directed toward the Christian God. Such changes were particularly pronounced in the newly established city of Constantinople, where elites from various groups contended to control civic and imperial religion. Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos argues that imperial Christianity was in fact a manifestation of traditional Roman religious structures. In particular, she explores how deeply established habits of ritual engagement in shared social spaces—ones that resonated with imperial ideology and appealed to the memories of previous generations—constructed meaning to create a new imperial religious identity. By examining three dynamics—ritual performance, rhetoric around violence, and the preservation and curation of civic memory—she distinguishes the role of Christian practice in transforming the civic and cultic landscapes of the late antique polis.