Inclusion and Exclusion in Mediterranean Christianities, 400–800 ed. by Yaniv Fox, and Erica Buchberger (review)

Based on two workshops held in Israel and Pennsylvania in 2016 and 2018 respectively, this edited volume examines the themes of inclusion and exclusion in Mediterranean Christianities (defined here as including 'Mediterranean hinterlands' such as Britain) in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Editors Yaniv Fox and Erica Buchberger introduce eleven articles arranged around four thematic tensions—textual communities; internal dialogues; religious and ethnic identities; and class distinctions—with a response by Chris Wickham.

Following an introduction by Fox, Carmela Vircello Franklin argues that a Carolingian redaction of the Liber pontificalis, commonly held to be a Frankish effort to connect their authority to that of the papacy, was, in fact, a late eighth- century Roman attempt to include the Franks. Dirk Rohmann follows up with a broad examination of the disjuncture between pagan and Christian philosophy, and the impact of classical thought (as heresy) on exclusion in late antiquity, though perhaps his understanding of the Hisperica Famina misses the mark. Shane Bjornlie subsequently argues that Beowulf, as possibly attached to the court of Alfred the Great, is an Anglo-Saxon response (inclusive of Carolingian anxieties) to Viking communities in northern England.

Yonatan Livneh begins the theme of internal dialogues with an investigation into the fifth-century church histories of the East Romans Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen. Stressing the tensions between projecting inclusivity and internal division in reporting the history of the Church, he proposes a period of moderation after the Council of Ephesus (431) that ended with the controversies at the Second Council of Ephesus (449) and Chalcedon (451). Following on, Daniel Leary analyses inclusion and exclusion in the seventh-century writings of the Palestinian monk Anthony of Choziba against the backdrop of the controversy over Chalcedon. He argues that Anthony's texts represent a pragmatic acceptance of different theological perspectives, where inclusiveness is advocated as a means of 'conversion'. Remaining in Palestine, Peter Schadler moves to controversies over episcopal authority in the eighth century and the doctrinal defence of the authoritative status of ecumenical church councils by Melkite theologians against a backdrop of Muslim criticisms of conciliar authority.

Moving to Persecution and Dissent, Éric Fournier investigates the Homoian Vandals' continuation of Roman legislation against heresy in north Africa, merely repurposing existing Catholic forms of enforced inclusion. Robin Whelan follows with an examination of the relationship between ethnic identity and Homoian Christianity in Ostrogothic Italy and Visigothic Spain. He cautions against the notion of a 'Gothic Christianity' based on ethnic identity, rather saying that attitudes to inclusion and exclusion had a theological basis. Erica Buchberger subsequently explores the intersection between the now-Catholic Gothic identity in seventh-century Spain and Jewishness. Tracking an increasing absorption of 'Gothicness' into notions of a unified Catholic people, she argues that the exclusion of Jews was a result of convenience. Moving to anti-Jewish sentiment in seventhcentury Francia, Thomas J. MacMaster examines the 'Fredegar Chronicle' to detail concord between Dagobert and Emperor Heraclius over the forced conversion of Jews, proposing that this 'forgotten' pogrom may have created the first Western Christian state purged of Jews.

Following the theme of elite networks as a form of exclusivity, Emmanuelle Raga examines, through the eyes of the fifth-century aristocrat and bishop Sidonius Apollinaris, the possible distinctions made between 'barbarian' approaches to food and the 'Mediterranean Triad' of bread, wine, and olives. She argues that distinctions made by Sidonius were based on class and not ethnicity. In the final article, Aleksander Paradziński investigates the elite networks of the fifth-century Ardaburii, a family of Alan descent. Charting the significant rise of this 'barbarian' family within Roman aristocracies, Paradziński demonstrates that 'barbarian' elites utilized both exclusive Roman networks and exclusive non-Roman networks to maintain identity. Chris Wickham draws the strands of this collected volume together by stressing three parameters to address...