Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus (New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents)

This book offers a detailed survey of the surviving Christian letters from Oxyrhynchus, which up until this time have never been collectively examined, and shows how this unique body of evidence can be used to elucidate a number of issues relating not only to Christianity in the Oxyrhynchite but also larger Christianity in late antique Egypt. With the discovery of the "Oxyrhynchus Papyri" just over a century ago a number of important texts directly relating to ancient Christianity have come to light. While certain literary texts have received considerable attention in scholarship by comparison the documentary evidence relating to Christianity has received far less attention and remains rather obscure. To help redress this imbalance, and to lend some context to the Christian literary materials, this book examines the extant Christian epistolary remains from "Oxyrhynchus" between the third and seventh centuries CE. Drawing upon this unique corpus of evidence, which until this point has never been collectively nor systematically treated, this book breaks new ground as it employs the letters to consider various questions relating to Christianity in the "Oxyrhynchite". Not only does this lucid study fill a void in scholarship, it also gives a number of insights that have larger implications on Christianity in late antiquity Writing Christian -- Mapping Christians: Travel And Epistolary Networks In Christian Letters From Oxyrhynchus -- Christians Of The Book? -- What's In A Name? -- Reading Someone Else's Mail. By Lincoln H. Blumell. Revision Of The Author's Thesis (doctoral)--university Of Toronto, 2009. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [371]-398) And Indexes.