Patristics and Late Antiquity: Partners or Rivals?

Students of late antiquity or early Christian studies have long been accustomed to the existence of the parallel and much older and more traditional discipline of patristics, but students of patristics may be less familiar with the main developments that have characterized the other two in recent years. This paper, originating in a lecture directed at them, and with a British audience attended by many theologians, returns to the question of disciplinary borderlines and the ways in which late antique studies have distanced themselves from patristics. It also points to recent developments in late antique studies and the study of religion that argue for a more integrated approach.