Originally published in 1933, Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo remains one of the most influential studies of religion in the Hellenistic and Roman time periods. For years, Arthur Darby Nock was one of the world's leading authorities on the religions of later antiquity. In this book, Nock analyzes the religious environment in the Greco-Roman world to reveal what made Judaism and Christianity distinctive. Nock compares the conversion process of Christianity with other religious options of the time, noting the differences. He traces the connections between Christianity and the culture into which it was born--a culture in which Christian beliefs and practices spread within households and along already established paths of trade to bridge social divides, offering a compelling alternative to traditional and contemporary cultic options. Through a deep examination of the psychology and circumstances of the Greco-Roman period, Nock concludes that Christianity succeeded, in part, because it acquired and adapted various aspects of other religions and philosophies that possessed popular appeal. Now with a new introduction by Clare K. Rothschild (Lewis University), this new edition of Conversion revitalizes a work that continues to speak. Conversion is still an essential read for anyone attempting to understand the complex relationships among religion, culture, and the rise of Christianity.

Reception studies have transformed the classics. Many more literary and cultural texts are now regarded as 'valid' for classical study. And within this process of widening, children's literature has in its turn emerged as being increasingly important. Books written for children now comprise one of the largest and most prominent bodies of texts to engage with the classical world, with an audience that constantly changes as it grows up. This innovative volume wrestles with that very characteristic of change which is so fundamental to children's literature, showing how significant the classics, as well as classically-inspired fiction and verse, have been in tackling the adolescent challenges posed by metamorphosis. Chapters address such themes as the use made by C S Lewis, in The Horse and his Boy, of Apuleius' The Golden Ass; how Ovidian myth frames the Narnia stories; classical 'nonsense' in Edward Lear; Pan as a powerful symbol of change in children's literature, for instance in The Wind in the Willows; the transformative power of the Orpheus myth; and how works for children have handled the teaching of the classics.