Religious Studies

This volume contributes to the reconstruction of the history of ancient Christians on the basis of an exemplary selection of Greek inscriptions. Fifteen essays discussing inscriptions from Asia Minor and Greece offer striking insights into the lives, beliefs, and diversity of Christian communities that literary sources largely pass over.

Literature or textbook? In antiquity, no clear distinction was made in this respect, as Christian Neumann demonstrates regarding the complex interplay of literary design and didactic function in Plutarch's Quaestiones Graecae and Romanae and Gellius' Noctes Atticae.

In twelve revised and expanded essays on the Johannine writings, Michael Theobald takes up central debates - the genesis of the Corpus Iohanneum, the Johannine Lord's Supper - and turns his attention to questions of reception history, such as the interpretation of the Gospel in mysticism.

Manse Rim examines the relation between messiah and righteousness in ancient Jewish texts and in the letters of Paul, aiming to offer a fresh perspective on the current impasse regarding Pauline justification. By tracing moral, administrative, and eschatological dimensions, he redefines the framework for understanding Pauline righteousness.