Moment of Reckoning - Imagined Death and Its Consequences in Late Ancient Christianity

In sermons, letters, and ascetic traditions, late ancient Christians imagined the last minutes of life and the events that followed death in elaborate detail. This book traces this early tradition of imagining the experience of dying and points to its consequences in later Christian thought.

List of contents

• Acknowledgments


• Introduction: Looking Toward Death in Late Ancient Christianity


• Chapter One: The Truth to Be Found in Death: Early Fourth-Century Histories


• Chapter Two: Creating the Experience of Death in Late Ancient Sermons


• Chapter Three: Training for Death: Rhetorical Formation and the Cast of the Early Christian Imagination


• Chapter Four: What Remains? Situating the Postmortal


• Chapter Five: Considering Compulsion in Late Ancient Christianity


• Conclusion: Claiming the Future


• Bibliography

About the author

Ellen Muehlberger is Associate Professor of Christianity in Late Antiquity in the Departments of Near Eastern Studies and History at the University of Michigan. During the research for this book, she held of the Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship (2014-15) and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2016-17).

Summary

In sermons, letters, and ascetic traditions, late ancient Christians imagined the last minutes of life and the events that followed death in elaborate detail. This book traces this early tradition of imagining the experience of dying and points to its consequences in later Christian thought.

Additional text

Death took a turn in late antiquity: beginning in the fourth century, Christians under the tutelage of their rhetorically sophisticated leaders visualized death as a new phase of their moral lives. In this lively and sensitive study, Muehlberger traces the roots and far-ranging implications of this deathly turn. Moment of Reckoning transforms our understanding of early Christian personhood and cautions nuance in the stories we tell about the past.

Product details

• Authors: Ellen Muehlberger, Ellen (Associate Professor of Christi Muehlberger, Muehlberger Ellen
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 06.06.2019
• EAN: 9780190459161
• ISBN: 978-0-19-045916-1
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; Social & cultural history, RELIGION / Christianity / History, RELIGION / Christian Theology / Eschatology, RELIGION / Psychology of Religion, Christianity, c 1500 onwards to present day, Social and cultural history, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Christian spirituality & religious experience, Spirituality and religious experience, History and Archaeology, RELIGION / Christian Living / Death, Grief, Bereavement