Magic, Charisma and Violence in Late Antiquity

This collection of 21 essays, published together for the first time, offers three new models for thinking about religion and magic in late antiquity. Using a range of sources, David Frankfurter models a shift from thinking about “magic” to looking at the material powers of peculiar things activated in specific life contexts. Frankfurter then brings together various forms of charisma in the late antique world to demonstrate how charisma was both a source of authority and a power that someone could transmit through objects. The collection also considers the relationship of violence to religion, from religious instigations to collective violence to violence in collective fantasy: of martyrs’ torments and of the rites of the monstrous Other.

Author Biography

David Frankfurter is Professor of Religion and Aurelio Chair in the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University.