Description
Book SynopsisThe interest in interdisciplinary research on the experience of religious conversion or spiritual transformation grows progressively. In light of this burgeoning area of study, this volume explores conversion or converting experience in the ancient Mediterranean with attention to early Judaism, early Christianity, and philosophy in the Roman empire. The contributions include both historical and philological reconstructions relying on source material and utilizing interdisciplinary approaches. Similarly, the authors analyze the literary use of the motif of conversion, the topic of philosophical conversion as well as ritual, social and embodied aspects of spiritual transformation.
Table of ContentsContents List of Tables and Figures Contributors Introduction Athanasios Despotis Part 1: Interdisciplinary Conversion Research Contemporary Models of Conversion and Identity Transformation Pierre-Yves Brandt Using Behavioural Sciences to Understand Early Christian Experiences of Conversion Rikard Roitto Part 2: Conversion in Ancient Judaism The Lost Daughter: A Philological Study on the Scroll of Ruth Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer Conversion within Israel?: An Essay on Old and New in Second Temple Judaism, and on Paul the Convert According to Phil 3:2–4:1 Hermut Löhr Strategies of Conversion in a Jewish-Orphic Hieros Logos: A Cognitive Approach Anna Furlan “Making tešuḇā” (לעשות תשובה): “(Re-)turning” in Tannaitic Literature Francesco Zanella Part 3: Conversion in Philosophical Traditions The Awake and Sober Way of Life: A Key Motif in the Stoic Conversion Sharon Padilla Philosophical Conversion in Plutarch’s Moralia and the Cultural Discourses in the Ancient Mediterranean Athanasios Despotis Conversion to Philosophy in Diogenes Laertius: Forms and Functions Sergi Grau Part 4: Conversion in the New Testament Is There Conversion in the Synoptic Gospels? Phillip A. Davis Jr. Metanoia in the Sermon on the Mount – A Philosophical Approach Raul Heimann Religious and Philosophical Conversion in Paul and John Athanasios Despotis ‘Consider Yourselves Dead’ (Rom 6:11): Biographical Reconstruction, Conversion, and the Death of the Self in Romans Stephen Chester What Was the Relationship between Almsgiving and Conversion for the New Testament Authors? Matthew N. Williams Part 5: Conversion in Mystery Cults and Late Antiquity Back to a Classic Debate: Conversion and Salvation in Ancient Mystery Cults? Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui The Sychar Story as a Standard Conversion Narrative in Heracleon’s Hypomnēmata Carl Johan Berglund Index
