Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsOverture: The Armor of Horus31Scope and Method52Religion and Temples373The Local Scope of Religious Belief974Mutations of the Egyptian Oracle1455Priest to Magician: Evolving Modes of Religious Authority1986The Scriptorium as Crucible of Religious Change2387Idiom, Ideology, and Iconoclasm: A Prolegomenon to the Conversion of Egypt265Select Bibliography285Index307

Promotional Information

Popular religion is at the center of this excellent study. Frankfurter places Christianity in a multifaceted, often unexpected context in the countryside of Egypt. He shows that despite the state's new religion, Egyptian gods, goddesses, and cultic practices persisted. The result is a thoroughly stimulating book---an unusual mix of erudition and interpretation--and one which I read with great pleasure. -- Dorothy J. Thompson, Girton College, Cambridge Clearly written and well-researched, [Frankfurter's] book is accessible to a wide audience of scholars and lay people alike. -- J. G. Manning, Stanford University

About the Author

David Frankfurter is Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of Elijah in Upper Egypt: The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christianity.

Reviews

Winner of the 1999 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, Historical Studies category, of the American Academy of Religion "Frankfurter presents a new and convincing analysis of the history of religious change in Roman and early Byzantine Egypt... This new synthesis of the available evidence constitutes a real breakthrough in our understanding of the religious changes in late ancient Egypt attending its Christianization."--Birger A. Pearson, Religious Studies Review "An exemplary work, engagingly written, which will be of interest not only to students of late antiquity, early Christianity, and Egypt but to anyone concerned with issues of religious change and practice."--Jonathan P. Berkey, American Historical Review "Where it has been usual to focus on the decay of grand temple religion, Frankfurter argues that this is only one side of the matter. There remained a lively practice of popular and local religion... The book overflows with ideas and insights."--Richard Gordon, Times Literary Supplement "Stimulating in the very best sense of that word: its thickly packed details and formulations reward readers not only with the insights of its author, but with material that often prompts them to travel down new paths of though themselves."--Sarah Iles Johnston, Journal of Biblical Literature "This ambitious book rewards the specialist and nonspecialist alike with a rich overview of Egyptian religion in late antiquity within a comparative religion framework... Frankfurter's refreshing synthesis of religion and magic both rewards and illumines the reader. His dexterity with such a diversity of visual, material, and textual evidence is a hallmark of this erudite book... Generously illustrated and clearly organized, this thought provoking study has set a benchmark for future work on religion in the ancient Mediterranean."--Georgia Frank, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This ambitious book rewards the specialist and nonspecialist alike with a rich overview of Egyptian religion in late antiquity within a comparative religion framework... Frankfurter's refreshing synthesis of religion and magic both rewards and illumines the reader. His dexterity with such a diversity of visual, material, and textual evidence is a hallmark of this erudite book... Generously illustrated and clearly organized, this thought-provoking study has set a benchmark for future work on religion in the ancient Mediterranean."--Georgia Frank, Journal of the American Academy of Religion