Christian Gaza In Late Antiquity

A conference was scheduled for October 2001 in Jerusalem and Gaza to bring Arab and Israeli scholars together to discuss Christians in late antique Gaza, but the al-Aqsa intifada broke out two weeks before, and the conference was indefinitely postponed. Most of the 13 papers here have been revised since then, but some remain as they were intended to be delivered. They discuss such topics as games and spectacles, the anti-Chalcedonian hagiography of John Rufus, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza and the Origenist controversy, and the depiction of mythological themes in Palestine and Arabia during the fifth and sixth centuries. Only names and places are indexed Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony is Lecturer in the Department of Comparative Religion, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her work includes Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity (California University Press, 2004) Aryeh Kofsky is Senior Lecturer of Comparative Religion in the Department of Land of Israel Studies, University of Haifa. His work includes Eusebius of Caesarea Against Paganism (Brill, 2000), and The Nusayri-Alawi Religion: An Enquiry into Its Theology and Liturgy (Brill, 2002) with M. Bar-Asher.