Reconceptualising Conversion

Combining classical, epigraphical, and biblical sources with social-scientific methodology, this monograph questions the way in which modern scholarship has tended to discuss ancient conversion. The author challenges long-held assumptions of psychological continuity between ancient and modern people, and offers in place of these assumptions a model founded on the categories the ancients used themselves. Graeco-Roman and Mediterranean religions and philosophies, including Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, framed their religion in the language of patronage / benefaction and loyalty, and thus an understanding of ancient conversion must start there.

Expanded Ph.D. dissertation (2003) under the supervision of Prof. John S. Kloppenborg, University of Toronto, Canada. Zeba A. Crook is now an assistant professor in the department of Classics and Religion at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.