Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety
  • Cited by 183
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      June 2011
      January 1965
      ISBN:
      9780511583582
      9780521385992
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511583582
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      Dimensions:
      (216 x 138 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.198kg, 164 Pages
      • Series:
      The Wiles Lectures
      Subjects:
      Classical Studies, History of Ideas, Classical Studies (General), Religion, Religion: General Interest
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Series:
    The Wiles Lectures
    Subjects:
    Classical Studies, History of Ideas, Classical Studies (General), Religion, Religion: General Interest
    Information

    Book description

    Interest in the world of Late Antiquity is currently undergoing a significant revival, and in this provocative book, now reissued in paperback, E. R. Dodds anticipated some of the themes now engaging scholars. There is abundant material for the study of religious experience in late antiquity, and through it Professor Dodds examines, from a sociological and psychological standpoint, the personal religious attitudes and experiences common to pagans and Christians in the period between Marcus Aurelius and Constantine. He looks first at general attitudes to the world and the human condition before turning to specific types of human experience. World-hatred and asceticism, dreams and states of possession, and pagan and Christian mysticism are all discussed. Finally Dodds considers both pagan views of Christianity and Christian views of paganism as they emerge in the literature of the time. Although primarily written for social and religious historians, this study will also appeal to all those interested in the ancient world and its thought.

    Reviews

    ‘The outstanding characteristics of [Dodds’s] work … are a rather rare union of detachment and sympathy, a combination of precise scholarship and a degree of acquaintance with contemporary psychological theories unusual in a classical scholar, and last but not least, an ability to write very well.’

    Source: The Times Literary Supplement

    ‘Professor Dodds mutes and muffles nothing … His tone is level and just, his understanding is comprehensive and his emphasis is never polemic. There is a dry inner light in his writing which falls evenly in every sentence, a distillation of restrained wit and of the lifelong exercise of scholarship.’

    Peter Levi Source: The Tablet

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.