In showing a more gradual spread of Christianity over the fourth century, Depauw and Clarysse’s revised statistical approach has some merits over Bagnall’s earlier conclusions from onomastic evidence. However, given the complex, even ambiguous Christianity evident in late antique Egyptian sources, all attempts to track “conversion” on the basis of naming beg the questions: (a) what constitutes “being Christian” and (b) what do new naming practices actually represent in the overall assimilation of Christian traditions.
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See David Frankfurter, “Voices, Books, and Dreams: The Diversification of Divination Media in Late Antique Egypt,” Mantikē: Studies in Ancient Divination, rgrw 155, edd. Sarah Iles Johnston and Peter Struck (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 233-54; and “Beyond Magic and Superstition,” The People’s History of Christianity, 2: Late Ancient Christianity, ed. Virginia Burrus (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), pp. 255-83. Christian Nile cult: Danielle Bonneau, La crue du Nil, divinité égyptienne, à travers mille ans d’histoire, Études et commentaires 52 (Paris: Klincksieck, 1964), 421-39. Figurines: László Török, Coptic Antiquities I, Bibliotheca Archaeologica 11 (Rome: Bretschneider, 1993), 30-48.
See, e.g., Aline Rousselle, Croire et guérir: La foi en Gaule dans l’Antiquité tardive (Paris: Fayard, 1990); Valerie I. J. Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991); Ramsay MacMullen, Christianity and Pagamism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997); and Eberhard Sauer, “Religious Rituals at Springs in the Late Antique and Early Medieval World,” and Peter Talloen, “From Pagan to Christian: Religious Iconography in Material Culture from Sagalassos,” The Archaeology of Late Antique ‘Paganism’, Late Antique Archaeology 7, ed. Luke Lavan and Michael Mulryan (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 505-550, 575-607.
C. Guignebert, “Les demi-chrétiens et leur place dans l’Église antique,” RHR 88 (1923): 65-102.
Roger Bagnall, “Combat ou vide: christianisme et paganisme dans l’Égypte romaine tardive,” Ktema 13 (1988): 285-96; and idem, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 261-75.
See also Arietta Papaconstantinou, Le culte des saints en Égypte des Byzantins aux Abbassides. L’apport des sources papyrologiques et épigraphiques grecques et coptes (Paris: CNRS, 2001), 364-67; and Stephen J. Davis, The Cult of St. Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford university Press, 2001), 201-8. On names following local gods’ oracular pronouncements or, conceivably, appearances in dreams following a festival, see Jan Quaegebeur, “Tithoes, dieu oraculaire?” Enchoria 7 (1977): 103-8.
Bagnall, “Religious Conversion,” 109; Carrié, “Christianisation du monde antique,” 150, and Depauw/Clarysse, “How Christian was Fourth-Century Egypt?” 426-28, offer speculations on this topic, as well as G. H. R. Horsley, “Name Change as an Indication of Religious Conversion in Antiquity,” Numen 34 (1987): 10-11.
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In showing a more gradual spread of Christianity over the fourth century, Depauw and Clarysse’s revised statistical approach has some merits over Bagnall’s earlier conclusions from onomastic evidence. However, given the complex, even ambiguous Christianity evident in late antique Egyptian sources, all attempts to track “conversion” on the basis of naming beg the questions: (a) what constitutes “being Christian” and (b) what do new naming practices actually represent in the overall assimilation of Christian traditions.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 441 | 108 | 38 |
Full Text Views | 289 | 7 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 142 | 17 | 0 |