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This comprehensive study offers a critical, comparative analysis of
the sources available on Bardaisan and a reinterpretation of his
thought. The study highlights the profound points of contact
between Bardaisan, Origen, and their schools; the role of Plato's
Timaeus and Middle Platonism in Bardaisan's thought, and Stoicism.
Bardaisan's thought emerges as a deeply Christian one, depending on
the exegesis of Scripture read in the light of Greek philosophy.
Positive ancient sources present him as a deacon or even a
presbyter, as an author of refutations of Marcionism and
Gnosticism, and as a confessor of the faith during persecution.
The authors of this volume elucidate the remarkable role played by
religion in the shaping and reshaping of narrative forms in
antiquity and late antiquity in a variety of ways. This is
particularly evident in ancient Jewish and Christian narrative,
which is in the focus of most of the contributions, but also in
some "pagan" novels such as that of Heliodorus, which is dealt with
as well in the third part of the volume, both in an illuminating
comparison with Christian novels and in an inspiring rethinking of
Heliodorus's relation to Neoplatonism. All of these essays, from
different perspectives, illuminate the interplay between narrative
and religion, and show how religious concerns and agendas shaped
narrative forms in Judaism and early Christianity. A series of
compelling and innovative articles, all based on fresh and often
groundbreaking research by eminent specialists, is divided into
three large sections: part one deals with ancient Jewish narrative,
and part two with ancient Christian narrative, in particular
gospels, acts, biographies, and martyrdoms, while part three offers
a comparison with "pagan" narrative, and especially the religious
novel of Heliodorus, both in terms of social perspectives and in
terms of philosophical and religious agendas. Like the essays
collected by Marilia Futre Pinheiro, Judith Perkins, and Richard
Pervo in 2013, which investigate the core role played by narratives
in Christian and Jewish self-fashioning in the Roman Empire, the
present volume fruitfully bridges the disciplinary gap between
classical studies and ancient Jewish and Christian studies, offers
new insights, and hopefully opens up new paths of inquiry.
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