Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Published in Open Access with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Winner of the Manfred Lautenschläger Award!
Religion is never simply there. In Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis, Mattias Brand shows where and when ordinary individuals and families in Egypt practiced a Manichaean way of life. Rather than portraying this ancient religion as a well-structured, totalizing community, the fourth-century papyri sketch a dynamic image of lived religious practice, with all the contradictions, fuzzy boundaries, and limitations of everyday life. Following these microhistorical insights, this book demonstrates how family life, gift-giving, death rituals, communal gatherings, and book writing are connected to our larger academic debates about religious change in late antiquity.
Winner of the Manfred Lautenschläger Award!
Religion is never simply there. In Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis, Mattias Brand shows where and when ordinary individuals and families in Egypt practiced a Manichaean way of life. Rather than portraying this ancient religion as a well-structured, totalizing community, the fourth-century papyri sketch a dynamic image of lived religious practice, with all the contradictions, fuzzy boundaries, and limitations of everyday life. Following these microhistorical insights, this book demonstrates how family life, gift-giving, death rituals, communal gatherings, and book writing are connected to our larger academic debates about religious change in late antiquity.
Price: $177.00
Pages: 412
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Publication Date:
25 May 2022
ISBN: 9789004508224
Format: Hardcover
Mattias Brand has produced a well-conceived and nuanced study of Manichean life in late antique Kellis that usefully brings theoretical insights to bear on textual, material, and visual evidence. I would strongly recommend this book to any historian or student interested in Manichaeism or lived religion in late antiquity.
Joseph E. Sanzo, BMCR 2023
Joseph E. Sanzo, BMCR 2023
Mattias Brand, Ph.D. (2019), Leiden University, is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zürich. He has published on Manichaeism, ancient Christianity, and the study of religion. Currently, he is researching the transformation of religious practices within ancient and contemporary houses.