Conversion in Late Antiquity, and the Early Middle Ages: Seeing and Believing.

Conversion in Late Antiquity, and the Early Middle Ages: Seeing and Believing, ed. Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton, Studies in Comparative History, Essays from the Helby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press; Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), x + 283 pp. ISBN 1-58046-125-5. 50.00 [pounds sterling]/ $75.00. This collection of eight essays on conversion in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages spans the period from the Roman Hellenism of Justin Martyr in the second century to the Carolingian reform of the ninth century. A special focus is the debate over conversion, and the ambiguous relation between words and social processes. Susanna Elm treats Gregory of Nazianzus, Rebecca Lyman examines the conversion of Justin Martyr, Eric Rebillard considers conversion and burial in the late Roman Empire, Richard Lim explores the baptism of stage performers, Raymond Van Dam looks at the conversions of Constantine, Michael Maas addresses Christianity and cultural change in early Byzantine ethnography, Julia M. H. Smith discusses Einhard and the Roman martyrs, and Nell McLynn traces seeing and believing from Antoninus Pius to Louis the Pious.