Religious inventions ancient Mediterranean practice and the study of religion

"Religious Inventions considers what the study of early Christianity and Judaism can contribute to the wider field of religious studies. On one level, its essays model ways of incorporating insights from religious studies into early Christan studies, showing how the major categories and methodologies in the study of religion-such as cross-cultural comparisons, the concept of identity, and the category of religion itself-operate in a biblical studies framework. On another level, this volume also reverses the dynamic of analysis, "demonstrating the powerful ways in which ancient forms of Judaism and Christianity, and the abundant quantities of data and scholarship they have generated, can structure and re-structure our understanding of this invented category of religion: what it is, what it is made of, and how it is useful - or not." For example, a section on comparison as a method in biblical studies queries the potential gains, and the limitations, of comparative work-a major tool of analysis in religious studies-as interpreted through diverse forms of early Judaism and Christianity. Another essay asks what can we learn about the unpredictable evolution of new religious movements by studying the surprising transformation of Christianity from an insignificant cult to imperial religion. The collection consists of 24 chapters divided into four categories: 1) religion as a category of study; 2) undoing text; 3) practice and identity; and 4) comparison."--