Early Christian political philosophy is not a unified, theoretical, and coherent system, but is embedded in a range of Christian works of apology, theology, and exegesis. Literate (and therefore elite) Christians from the apologists to Augustine were subject to a range of political and social pressures, and their political thinking was often contingent and incidental. What is the ultimate goal of political life for Christians? What is the good life for Christians? Between Constantine's reign and that of Theodosius at the close of the fourth century, emperors veered from the pious to the “heretical,” with a single pagan interruption. It was a common rhetorical conceit for Christians to redefine philosophy as Christianity, and one that became more urgent during Julian's reign. He attempted to wrest Greek philosophy and culture from the Christians for his revived paganism, dubbed “Hellenism,” and even barred Christians from teaching in his school edict of 362. This article focuses on early Christian political philosophy as well as ecclesiology, eschatology, and asceticism.

The works of Ambrosiaster, a Christian writing in Rome in the late 4th century, were influential on at the time and throughout the Middle Ages. This book starts by addressing the problem of the author's mysterious identity (which scholars have puzzled over for centuries) and places him in a broad historical and intellectual context. Later, it addresses Ambrosiaster's political theology, an idea which has been explored in other late Roman Christian writers but which has never been addressed in his works. The book also looks at how Ambrosiaster's attitudes to social and political order were formed on the basis of theological concepts and the interpretation of scripture, and shows that he espoused a rigid hierarchical and monarchical organization in the church, society, and the Roman empire. He also traced close connections between the Devil, characterized as a rebel against God, and the earthly tyrants and usurpers who followed his example.

No abstract

Ambrose's funeral sermons on the emperors Valentinian and Theodosius have been analysed as texts borrowing from classical rhetorical traditions, and as repositories of detail about contemporary politics. However, the crucial context for these texts was ecclesiastical; they were sermons, preached in church in services during which lessons were read from the Bible. This article shows that a consideration of this particular historical and liturgical context helps to elucidate Ambrose's ‘levelling’ political thought, and that identifying the biblical cadences of the sermons, far from being obfuscatory, is the key to understanding them.

The Emperor Julian is a historical figure of perennial interest to a number of groups who hold quite passionate views on him. Despite this level of interest, there are relatively few sober works studying him. Theresa Nesselrath adds one such to the literature on this unique emperor with the published version of her  Bonn doctoral dissertation. After summarising Julian's background and theology, she proceeds to a study of his campaign of repaganisation, examining in turn his organisation, priests, cult and philanthropy. Nesselrath may be a new scholar, but she is refreshingly unafraid to stake out some definite opinions in controversial territory. In contrast to one strand of scholarly opinion, she portrays Julian as a genuine convert away from Christianity to paganism (pp. -; contra Polymnia Athanassiadi-Fowden, Julian and Hellenism: an intellectual biography, Oxford , -). With other recent scholarship, Nesselrath emphasises the importance of Julian's autobiographical myth for understanding his subsequent actions towards the Constantinian dynasty and Christianity (pp. -; cf. Julian, Or. . c-c). She carefully opposes the traditional position on Julian's 'heidnische Kirche', arguing that the emperor drew equally upon pagan and Christian material and that the result was 'not a mere imitation of the church' (p. ; contra W. Koch, 'Comment l'empereur Julien tacha de fonder une église païenne', Revue belge de philology et d'histoire vii [], ; Glen Bowersock, Julian the Apostate, London , ; Robert Browning, The Emperor Julian, London , ). Whether one agrees with all her individual points, her positions are clearly presented and based upon a thorough collection and examination of the evidence, for which future researchers will be grateful. There are a number of interpretations of Julian and his pagan restoration in modern research languages other than English that Anglophone scholars simply must engage with. I think it fair to say that Nesselrath's volume joins works such as Joseph Bidez's La Vie de l'empereur Julien and Jean Bouffartigue's L'Empereur Julien et la culture de son temps on this must-consult list. The volume itself upholds German publishing standards with a handsome cloth hardcover with sewn binding and acid-free archival-quality paper. I recommend its purchase by university libraries and specialists on Julian. DAVID GREENWOOD UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH Poetics of wonder. Testimonies of the new Christian miracles in the late antique Latin world. By Giselle de Nie. (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, .) Pp. xi +  incl.  ills. Turnhout: Brepols, . E.      JEH () ; doi:./S Miracles were not a constant feature of ancient Christianity, and de Nie's subject in this ambitious and thought-provoking book is their reappearance in the Latin West in the late fourth century after a long period of abeyance, and the emergence of new symbolic and imagistic modes of description for them. She focuses in particular on miracles of h...