Classifying Christians: "Ethnography, Heresiology, and the Limits of Knowledge in Late Antiquity"
Todd S. Berzon
Abstract
This book investigates late antique Christian heresiologies as ethnographies that catalogued and detailed the origins, rituals, doctrines, and customs of the heretics in explicitly polemical and theological terms. Oscillating between ancient ethnographic evidence and contemporary ethnographic writing, the book argues that late antique heresiology shares an underlying logic with classical ethnography in the ancient Mediterranean world. By providing an account of heresiological writing from the second to fifth century, the book embeds heresiology within the historical development of imperial for ... More
Keywords: Christian heresiologies, heretics, late antique heresiology, classical ethnography, ancient Mediterranean, heresiological writing, western culture
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 | Print ISBN-13: 9780520284265 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: September 2016 | DOI:10.1525/california/9780520284265.001.0001 |
