Description
Book SynopsisTime is integral to human culture. Over the last two centuries people''s relationship with time has been transformed through industrialisation, trade and technology. But the first such life-changing transformation under Christianity''s influence happened in late antiquity. It was then that time began to be conceptualised in new ways, with discussion of eternity, life after death and the end of days. Individuals also began to experience time differently: from the seven-day week to the order of daily prayer and the festal calendar of Christmas and Easter. With trademark flair and versatility, world-renowned classicist Simon Goldhill uncovers this change in thinking. He explores how it took shape in the literary writing of late antiquity and how it resonates even today. His bold new cultural history will appeal to scholars and students of classics, cultural history, literary studies, and early Christianity alike.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I: 1. God's time; 2. The time of death; 3. Telling time; 4. Waiting; 5. Time and time again; 6. Making time visible; 7. At the same time; 8. Timelessness and the now; 9. Life times; 10. The rape of time; Part II: 11. Beginning, again: Nonnus' paraphrase of the Gospel of John; 12. The eternal return: Nonnus' Dionysiaca; 13. Regulation time: Gregory's Christmas Day; 14. Day to day; 15. “We are the times”: Making history Christian; Coda: Writing in the time of sickness.
