Preface
Preface The papers in this collection originated in a conference held at the Catholic University of America from June 6 to June 9, 2002, under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Early Christianity. The call for papers stated the organizing principle of the conference: “Christianity is assuredly a ‘Religion of the Book.’ It is also quintessentially a religion of books.” Drawn from the multiple disciplines that make up the fields of early Christianity and late antiquity , speakers were asked to consider the production and use of books, including the Bible, between the third and seventh centuries a.d. The fact that no paper is devoted to the early Christian writings that made up the New Testament results from this chronological limitation. The excitement and lively success of the conference suggested that the topic merited publication, and twelve speakers were asked to revise their papers for this volume. Ten short papers and eight longer ones had been delivered at the conference, and the varying length of the papers collected here to some extent reflects that feature of the original program. We are grateful to Philip Rousseau for agreeing to write an introduction to this volume, to the authors for their conscientious revisions, and to the Press’s readers, who made a number of useful suggestions and observations. W. E. K. L. S. ix ...
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