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University of California Press

About the Book

Dayna S. Kalleres is Assistant Professor of Early Christianity at the University of California, San Diego.

About the Author

and Christian Power in Late Antiquity

Table of Contents

“In City of Demons Dayna Kalleres jolts readers out of their secular modern world to experience the richly enchanted and animated cities of late antiquity. Through case studies of John Chrysostom in Antioch, Cyril in Jerusalem, and Ambrose in Milan, Kalleres repopulates the late antique landscape with its demons and highlights the significance of the rituals and rhetoric of spiritual warfare in post-Constantinian Christianity. This engaging and methodologically sophisticated cultural history of urban demonologies challenges scholars to take account of the ways in which perceptions of human/demon interactions shaped the late Roman world.”—Christine Shepardson, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and author of Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy

“Dayna Kalleres has written a creative and original book that is sure to make a tremendous impact. In lucid and engaging prose, she asks readers to reimagine the post-classical city as an animated space, alive with unseen forces. To take this urbanscape of late antiquity seriously is to engage in entirely new ways with our ancient Christian sources and to revise our understanding of religious community, identity, and conflict.”—Andrew Jacobs, Mary W. and J. Stanley Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Scripps College

Reviews

"City of Demons is a profoundly learned work that aims to address the widely studied issue of urban ecclesiastical leadership with a fresh approach; the critical apparatus and the number and consistency of references are impressive."
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft

"The City of Demons is a deep study and its author does not shy away from arguing against established academic theories . . . Kalleres innovatively evaluates historical, religious studies and anthropological data, which help to understand the Christian worldview of the post-Constantine era."

Reading Religion
“In City of Demons Dayna Kalleres jolts readers out of their secular modern world to experience the richly enchanted and animated cities of late antiquity. Through case studies of John Chrysostom in Antioch, Cyril in Jerusalem, and Ambrose in Milan, Kalleres repopulates the late antique landscape with its demons and highlights the significance of the rituals and rhetoric of spiritual warfare in post-Constantinian Christianity. This engaging and methodologically sophisticated cultural history of urban demonologies challenges scholars to take account of the ways in which perceptions of human/demon interactions shaped the late Roman world.”—Christine Shepardson, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee and author of Controlling Contested Places: Late Antique Antioch and the Spatial Politics of Religious Controversy

“Dayna Kalleres has written a creative and original book that is sure to make a tremendous impact. In lucid and engaging prose, she asks readers to reimagine the post-classical city as an animated space, alive with unseen forces. To take this urbanscape of late antiquity seriously is to engage in entirely new ways with our ancient Christian sources and to revise our understanding of religious community, identity, and conflict.”—Andrew Jacobs, Mary W. and J. Stanley Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Scripps College