Making and Breaking the Gods Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity. This item is unavailable.Making and Breaking the Gods Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity

The basic premise of the book at hand is that there is meaning to be 'excavated' (in both meanings of the word) from Christian responses to pagan sculpture in the period from the fourth to the sixth century. More than mindless acts of religious violence by fanatical mobs, these responses are revelatory of contemporary conceptions of images and the different ways in which the material manifestations of the pagan past could be negotiated in Late Antiquity. Statues were important to the social, political and religious life of cities across the Mediterranean, as well as part of a culture of representation that was intricately bound to bodily taxonomies and visual practices.

"...this book is well balanced and draws upon comparanda from other than the principal regional areas of focus. It is well edited...with many good quality photos, a number of which are in color and were taken by the author himself." --John Pollini, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2014.08.61