Note

In a recent issue of the journal (JECS 14.4 [2006]: 539–41) Cornelia B. Horn reviewed my book When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005). Generally, it is of course a good rule not to respond to reviews of one's own books. However, since Horn in the review appears to question my integrity as a scholar I feel forced to make an exception to the rule. On pages 269–71 of my book I make use of three texts (Prudentius's Peristephanon; The Martyrdom of Sophia and Her Three Children, and Eusebius of Caesarea's account of Origen's youth [h.e. book 6]).

Horn dealt with these texts in a paper (of which I gained a copy) at a conference in Toronto in 2002. She criticizes me for not referring to her paper and maintains that I am "reproducing at times the exact same words" which she "had employed in her discussion of the material." That I did not refer to Horn's paper and give her credit for having identified the actual texts was a lapsus. In my discussion of the texts I realize one example of using almost the same words as Horn when I link two passages of a text together and I depend on her for the election of which parts of the text I quote (p. 269).

I fully agree with Horn concerning the ethical standards that are to be followed in the scholarly community. When I wrote this part of the book I knew that she would read it carefully, and I considered her a potential reviewer of my book. Thus it was no attempt at claiming the findings for myself.