Religious polemics and encounters in late antiquity : : boundaries, conversions, and persuasion / / edited by Timo Nisula, Anni Maria Laato, Pablo Irizar.

• Superior document: Studies on the children of Abraham ; 8
• TeilnehmendeR: Nisula, Timo,; Laato, Anni Maria, 1963-; Irizar, Pablo,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Studies on the Children of Abraham ; 8.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Religious Polemics and Encounters in Late Antiquity: Boundaries, Conversions, and Persuasion explores the intricate identity formation and negotiations of early encounters of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). It explores the ever-pressing challenges arising from polemical inter-religious encounters by analyzing the dynamics of apologetic debate, the negotiation and formation of boundaries of belonging, and the argumentative thrust for persuasion and conversion, as well as the outcomes of these various encounters, including the articulation of novel ideas. The Late Antique authors studied in the present volume represent a variety of voices from North Africa, passing through Rome, to Palestine. Together, these voices of the past offer invaluable insight to shape the present times, in hope for a better future.

Table of Contents

Preface -- Notes on Contributors -- Abraham in Justin Martyr's Dialogue -- Antti Laato -- Excellent, but How? Abraham in Josephus -- Erkki Koskenniemi -- Illusory Polemics: Clement and Irenaeus on the Gnostics -- Sami Yli-Karjanmaa -- Justin Martyr as a Polemicist -- Sven-Olav Back -- Mimus Religionis , Mimicry, and Deviance: Late Antique Polemic against Religious Others -- Maijastina Kahlos -- Tertullian on Christian Converts and Clashes with the Pagan World -- Anni Maria Laato -- Worshipping a False Go(o)d: Praeparatio Evangelica 7.2-4 through the Lens of Anti-Epicurean Polemics -- Siiri Toiviainen Rø -- Anti-Donatist Polemic and Biblical Hermeneutics: Questions of Ecclesiology in Augustine of Hippo's De Doctrina Christiana -- Joseph Grabau -- Talking with the Enemy: Fictitious Polemical Dialogues against the Donatists in Augustine's Sermones Ad Populum -- Timo Nisula -- The Challenge of Shame for Philosophical Dialogue in Augustine's Early Writings -- Eetu Manninen -- The Grace of Merit and the Merit of Grace: Dialogical Ambiguity in Augustine's Sermons -- Pablo Irizar -- The Rhetoric of Appropriation and Dissociation in Evodius' Aduersus Manichaeos : A Case Study of Anti-Manichaean Polemics -- Aäron Vanspauwen -- Threat of Conversion in the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam? -- Serafim Seppälä -- Index.