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The purpose of the volume is to explore how specific historical and socio-cultura conditions of late antiquity shaped the development of Christian thought.The authors of the volume analyse various aspects of these conditions, particularly those of a textual and institutional nature, as they are reflected in the hermeneutic and philosophical principles of Christian discourse. This focus sheds new light on unexplored features of Christian literature, such as the influence of manuscript culture, early church institutions and practices, exegetical techniques, and philosophical curricula.

This volume consists of essays that pose fundamental questions about the relation between verbal and visual hermeneutics, especially as relates to biblical culture. Exegesis, as theologians and historians of art, religion, and literature, have come increasingly to acknowledge, was neither solely textual nor aniconic; on the contrary, following from Scripture itself, which is replete with verbal images and rhetorical figures, exegesis has traditionally utilized visual devices of all kinds. In turn, visual exegesis, since it concerns the most authoritative of texts, supplied a template for the interpretation of other kinds of significant text by means of images. Seen in this light, exegetical images prove crucial to understanding how meaning was constituted visually, not only in the sacred sphere but also in the secular.Contributors include Giovanni Careri, Joseph Chorpenning, James Clifton, Nathalie de Brézé, Maria Deiters, Ralph Dekoninck, Arthur diFuria, Caroline van Eck, Dagmar Eichberger, Ingrid Falque, Wim François, Merel Groentjes, Agnès Guiderdoni, Barbara Haeger, Alexander Linke, Walter Melion, Jürgen Müller, Birgit Ulrike Münch, Colette Nativel, Wolfgang Neuber, Shelley Perlove, Leopoldine Prosperetti, Todd Richardson, Bret Rothstein, Tatiana Senkevitch, Larry Silver, Jamie Smith, Trudelien van't Hof, Michel Weemans, and Elliott Wise