Antigone Samellas Livres

Exploring the multifaceted experience of alienation in late-antique East, this study delves into Christianity's historical context and its elevation of estrangement as a key religious virtue. It examines the faith's focus on marginalized individuals and the contemporary relevance of social utopia as a remedy for alienation. The contradictions within Christianity are highlighted, particularly its opposition to legal structures while inadvertently supporting imperial violence. Additionally, it investigates existential and psychological themes, tracing the evolution of the modern self from antiquity to the Middle Ages.

Antigone Samellas examines the modes of reception of Jesus' message of salvation. She explores the Greek and Jewish influence on Christian eschatology and traces the Hellenistic roots of Christian consolation philosophy. The author examines Christianity as a 'total therapy of grief' and highlights the differences that existed between the religious cures and the Hellenistic philosophical therapies. To gain a better understanding of the process of conversion to the new faith Antigone Samellas also investigates which aspects of Christianity were appealing and which repugnant in the eyes of pagans and Jews. Finally, she attempts to convey something of the wisdom of the East, in all its cultural and religious nuances, to the modern reader.