Magic, Charisma and Violence in Late Antiquity

A definitive collection of work by the leading expert on the material powers, collective fantasies and ritual expressions of early Christianities and their local religious contexts Presents novel studies of Egypt during a period when its villages negotiate Christianity in everyday life Offers extensive discussions of magical practices and fears by a scholar renowned in the study of magic Provides serious and sensitive engagement with ritual and religious practices often derided as marginal, from spirit possession and divination to fertility ritual and sorcery against neighbors and lovers Delivers original reconsiderations of martyrology, sacrifice, saintly practices, and the concept of religion This collection of 21 essays, published together for the first time, offers three new models for thinking about religion and magic in late antiquity. Using a range of sources, David Frankfurter models a shift from thinking about “magic” to looking at the material powers of peculiar things activated in specific life contexts. Frankfurter then brings together various forms of charisma in the late antique world to demonstrate how charisma was both a source of authority and a power that someone could transmit through objects. The collection also considers the relationship of violence to religion, from religious instigations to collective violence to violence in collective fantasy: of martyrs’ torments and of the rites of the monstrous Other.