Wisdom on the Move: Late Antique Traditions in Multicultural Conversation

Wisdom on the Move explores the complexity and flexibility of wisdom traditions in Late Antiquity and beyond. This book studies how sayings, maxims and expressions of spiritual insight travelled across linguistic and cultural borders, between different religions and milieus, and how this multicultural process reshaped these sayings and anecdotes. Wisdom on the Move takes the reader on a journey through late antique religious traditions, from manuscript fragments and folios via the monastic cradle of Egypt, across linguistic and cultural barriers, through Jewish and Biblical wisdom, monastic sayings, and Muslim interpretations. Particular attention is paid to the monastic Apophthegmata Patrum, arguably the most important genre of wisdom literature in the early Christian world.

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Ph.D. (1982), Birmingham University, is Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of Religion and History, Brown University. Publications include Knowing Bodies, Passionate Souls (2017); Song and Memory: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition (2010); Scenting Salvation (2006).

Thomas Arentzen, Ph.D. (2014) and docent (2018), Lund University, is Researcher in Greek Philology, Uppsala University. Publications include The Virgin in Song: Mary and the Poetry of Romanos the Melodist (2017) and The Reception of the Virgin in Byzantium (2019).

Henrik Rydell Johnsén, Ph.D. (2007), Stockholm University, is Researcher and Senior Lecturer in History of Religions at Stockholm University. Publications include “Repentance and Confession” (2019), ”Physicians, teachers and friends” (2018), “The Virtue of Being Uneducated” (2018), Reading John Climacus (2007).

Andreas Westergren, Ph.D. (2012), Lund University, is Researcher and Lecturer in Church and Mission Studies at Lund University. Publications include “The Monastic Paradox” (2018), “Paideia, Piety and Power” (2018), “Monastic Space” 2016), Sketching the Invisible (2012),