Recent decades have seen a reappraisal of the narratives that are typically applied to the social and religious developments of the Mediterranean world in the fourth and fifth century. Most historians now agree that teleological accounts of the “decline of paganism” and the “triumph of orthodoxy” are suspect, reflecting the biases of elite sources. More and more scholars attend to the complexity behind those accounts: the discursive construction of insiders and outsiders, the role of identity formation, and the multiplicity and fluidity of socio-religious belonging. Kahlos offers a fine overview of these trends, focusing on the themes of imperial legislation, the end of sacrifice, attacks on “magic,” and the process of “othering” dissident groups. She aims to show that in none of these cases is “mainstream” Christianity's conquest of its rivals as clear or as definitive as often assumed. Of course, aware that labeling these “outsider” Christian groups as “dissenters” reinscribes the very paradigm that she hopes to challenge, Kahlos regularly cautions against taking any such categories as normative.
The volume comprises three sections. The first, “Imperial and ecclesiastical authority,” treats legislation and the relationships among bishops, the court, and dissenters. Here, Kahlos shows the limits faced by centralized ecclesiastical and imperial powers as well as the complications of negotiating civil regulations in the face of the clout held by local landowners. The second section, “People in rhetoric and realities,” challenges the standard doctrinal categories employed by elites. She argues that fixed identities such as “pagan” and “heretic” do not account for the way that identities are both fluid and situational; ancients would have shifted and adapted their self-understanding depending on the circumstances, the benefits, and the risks associated with adopting one label rather than another. The final section, “Time, place, practices,” challenges both the distinction between religion and magic and the presumption that rituals forbidden by church authorities must have been “pagan survivals.” Kahlos presents extensive evidence for the enduring practice of sacrifice and the mixed motives behind participation in so-called orthodox observances.
While the historical scope is broad, Kahlos returns to three or four central figures. Predictably, the “Arian” controversy is shown to be much more complex than Athanasius would have us believe. She also challenges modern appraisals of Augustine's disputes with the “Donatists,” which rely too heavily on the accounts of the “Caecilianists,” Kahlos's preferred label for the “catholic” church of North Africa. John Chrysostom's attacks on moral laxity among his congregation appear throughout the study, usually to indicate that the general populace remained somewhat unmoved by the appeals preached from the pulpit.
In developing her account, Kahlos relies on prominent theoretical models. Postcolonial studies bolster her claims that elite discourse often imposes a dominant culture on subjects who must find ways to reappropriate their own identity. The “local religion model” of David Frankfurter and others shows that we must see religious phenomena not in global or dichotomous terms (Christian vs. pagan; orthodox vs. heretical) but rather as dynamic adaptations to changing circumstances. Her impressive bibliography demonstrates her mastery of modern historical and critical approaches.
Thus, as a summary of the “anti-teleological” turn in the study of late antique religion, Kahlos's study will be valuable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students searching for an introduction to recent scholarly trends. While much of the material in the volume will be familiar to specialists, who have long viewed triumphalistic narratives, both ancient and modern, with suspicion, Kahlos's broad scope allows for conversation among a range of historical and critical sources.
At the same time, the volume will be less useful to those who find enduring value in the insights and arguments of the writers of the period. Given her suspicion of the construction of “orthodoxy,” Kahlos devotes little attention to the actual debates among the various factions, presumably because they may be reduced to social, cultural, and political practices. Perhaps for this same reason, there is also little consideration of the scriptural foundations for “official” teaching against sacrifice, magic, and false doctrine. The imperial context and ancient Greco-Roman religious landscape, rather than the biblical and spiritual worldviews, are Kahlos's main point of reference.
Yet by prescinding from engagement with the specifically theological terms of these controversies, Kahlos often makes broad claims that would apply to virtually any period in religious history. To state, for instance, that “Christians tended to make their decisions on a situational basis” (177) is to tell us very little about either those decisions or the situations. Furthermore, much of the data used to demonstrate the fluidity of belonging can also be understood to reflect human fallibility; what Kahlos labels “situational identity” other scholars would call “inconsistency” or even “hypocrisy.” Kahlos's suggestion that such charges are always and everywhere constructions of an elite discourse seems over-simplified.
Kahlos offers a valuable survey of trends in recent historical scholarship that should force serious reflection on the terms and categories employed in the study of late antique religion. Nevertheless, those who maintain that there were factors other than authority and identity formation involved in the emergence of a discourse of orthodoxy and dissent in the period may differ in their interpretation of the abundant data that she provides.
