Corinthian Matters

Category: Religion – Ancient

  • Performing 1 Corinthians

    Performing 1 Corinthians

    Among the thousands of publications on St. Paul’s letters to the Christians in Corinth, Creating a Scene in Corinth: A Simulation (MennoMedia 2013) stands out for its unique approach to biblical study through simulation and performance. Written by Reta Finger and George McClain, the work invites its readers to experience 1 Corinthians by directly entering…

  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions

    Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions

      This new Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, edited by Eric Orlin and a team of collaborators, claims to be the “first comprehensive single-volume reference work offering authoritative coverage of ancient religions in the Mediterranean world.” As the publisher page describes it: The volume’s scope extends from pre-historical antiquity in the third millennium B.C.E.…

  • Reading 1 and 2 Corinthians in the Digital Age

    Reading 1 and 2 Corinthians in the Digital Age

    A few years ago, a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found that Americans on average were broadly illiterate about the core beliefs, writings, and teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Only about half of Americans, for example, know the Koran is the sacred text of Islam, Martin Luther was somehow associated with the Protestant Reformation, or…

  • Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Greek Lamps and Offering Trays (Bookidis and Pemberton)

    Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Greek Lamps and Offering Trays (Bookidis and Pemberton)

    It’s a monumental achievement to publish in the Corinth Monograph series. These archaeological reports are designed as authoritative statements about the archaeology of individual buildings and sites investigated by the American Excavations at Corinth, and they represent years, if not decades, of scholarly study of architecture and artifacts of individual buildings. The production of the volumes themselves stretches over many years of editing and proofreading. So any new volume in the Corinth or Isthmia series…

  • 2015 Publications in Corinthian Studies: New Testament, Christianity, and Judaism

    This is the third in a series of five bibliographic reports related to Corinthian scholarship published or digitized in 2015. This post also marks the next installment in a Lenten series on resources for the study of Judaism, New Testament, and early Christianity in Corinth (see last week’s post on Corinthian-related blogs). Today’s report presents scholarship published or digitized in 2015 related…

  • Bridge of the Untiring Sea (Gebhard and Gregory, eds.)

    I finally have my hands on Bridge of the Untiring Sea: the Corinthian Isthmus from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, fresh off the press (December 2015) from the Princeton office of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. I wrote briefly about this forthcoming book in June (here and here). The Bridge has been a long time in the making. It…

  • Hellenistic Sanctuaries between Greece and Rome (Melfi and Bobou)

    I’m slowly making my way through a backlog of new Corinthian scholarship this morning as the first east coast snowstorm of 2016 threatens to envelop central Pennsylvania (and I’m not sure whether my six year old or I am more excited about a foot of snow). Discovered this little gem. A brand new collection of essays on Hellenistic sanctuaries due for publication in March with Oxford…

  • The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion (eds. Eidinow and Kindt)

    Another exciting new Oxford handbook is scheduled for publication next month. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, edited by Esther Eidinow and Julia Kindt, offers a broad overview of Greek religion from archaic to Hellenistic times, including numerous case studies and some 43 chapters on topics ranging from belief and practice to the deities, daimonic powers,…