Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine / Edition 1

by E. R. Dodds

Overview

Drawing on the abundant material available for the study of religious experience in late antiquity, Professor Dodds examines the personal religious attitudes and experiences common to pagans and Christians in the period between Marcus Aurelius and Constantine. World-hatred and asceticism, dreams and states of possession, and pagan and Christian mysticism are all discussed. Finally, Dodds considers both pagan views of Christianity and Christian views of paganism as they emerge in the literature of the time. Although primarily written for social and religious historians, this study will also appeal to all those interested in the ancient world and its thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521385992
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/22/1991
Series:	The Wiles Lectures , #1963
Edition description:	1st Paperback Edition
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.54(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Key to references; 1. Man and the material world; 2. Man and the daemonic world; 3. Man and the divine world; 4. The dialogue of paganism with Christianity; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"The outstanding characteristics of [Dodds'] work...are a rather rare union of detachment and sympathy, a combination of precise scholarship and a degree of acquaintance with contemporary psychological theories unusual in a classical scholar, and last, but not least, an ability to write very well." The Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher