Ancient Christianity had an ambivalent stance toward violence. Jesus had instructed his disciples to love their enemies, and in the first centuries Christians w

A comparative examination and interpretation of religious violence in the Graeco-Roman world and Late Antiquity.

The volume explores the relationship between religion and violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Early modern period, involving European and Japanese sc

Employs the sectarian battles which divided African Christians in late antiquity to explore the nature of violence in religious conflicts.

In Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity, Thomas Sizgorich seeks to understand why and how violent expressions of religious devotion became central to the self-