Introduction; Chapter 1 Rome; Chapter 2 Carthage; Chapter 3 Christian Community; Chapter 4 Prison; Chapter 5 The Arena; Chapter 6 Aftermath; Notes; Bibliography; Index;
Joyce E. Salisbury holds the Frankenthal Professorship of Medieval History and Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She is widely published in the fields of religion and medieval studies, and her most recent books include The Beast Within: Animals andBestiality in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 1994) and Church Fathers, Independent Virgins (1992).
"...this book is a very pleasant and engaging read, both for the
neophyte and for the expert who has come to relish the clarity,
precision, and courage of [Salisbury]." -- Religious Studies
Review
"...a compelling read..." -- Journal of Women's History
"Salisbury provides well-founded responses to a number of
long-standing issues." -- Trinity Seminary Review
"Salisbury's investigation of a Christian martydom in 203 and its
subsequent impact appeals beyond its apparent natural audience of
scholars because it is an engagingly told story." -- Booklist
"Salisbury has performed the important work of bringing the story
of Perpetua to a much-deserved wider reading audience. She has also
invited readers unfamiliar with the ancient world into its vibrancy
and complexity, and she has done so with a good deal of insight and
lively narrative style." -- Women's Review of Books
"This remarkably objective, insightful piece of scholarship is
highly recommended for all public and academic libraries." --
Library Journal
"Joyce Salisbury takes us on a short but fascinating journey back
into time during the early centuries of Christianity, when the new
faith was little more than an upstart troublesome cult. Salisbury
draws a rich and fully rounded picture of second and third century
Carthage...Perpetua's Passion is one of the most readable books I
have found on early Christianity in a long time. It will be of
interest to anyone concerned with the origins of Christianity, the
Roman Empire after the time of Christ, or just general students of
religion and history." -- American Reporter
"[A] beautifully written, carefully researched, meticulously
documented study...Salisbury's portrait of this remarkable young
woman will interest students and scholars of religion and society,
the history of Christianity, and women's studies, to be sure, but
it is also a great story, engagingly told, one that deserves a
larger, general readership, too." -- Booklist
"In a refreshing contrast with countless insipid hagiographies,
Salisbury's well-annotated look at Perpetua's martyrdom is clear,
thorough, insightful and less a portrait of the person than of the
socio-politico-religious context in which she lived and died.
Salisbury's sharp analysis strips away generations of patriarchal
revisionism to let the young roman matron speak for herself." --
Publisher's Weekly
"An insightful, moving account of the death of an
early-third-century Christian martyr, based on her own diary...A
uniquely absorbing and poignant study of the vanished world of the
early martyrs." -- Kirkus
"Fusing history with biography Salisbury demonstrates how a seismic
shift in western culture impinged in a single consciousness. She
accomplishes this clearly, elegantly, and with respectful sympathy
for its human protagonists."
"...lively and provocative..." -- Globe & Mail
"The strength of this book is in helping modern readers see
martyrdom as less freakish and more palatable within a framework of
intelligibility and meaning. It is readable and does not assume
developed knowledge of the period or of early Christianity." --
Church History
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