Abstract
Still the ancient novel does not really play a significant role for the study of early Christianity. All in all scholars of exegesis and church history alike underestimate its importance for and impact on Christian (and Jewish) narrative texts if they do not ignore it completely. This collection of essays proves that profound knowledge of the ancient novel facilitates a better understanding of narrative texts from the early Roman imperial period. Marília P. Futre Pinheiro, Judith Perkins and Richard Pervo are the editors of the proceedings of the fourth International Conference on the Ancient Novel – ICAN IV – that took place in 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal. With previous conferences in 1976 in Bangor, Wales, in 1989 in Hanover, New Hampshire, and in 2000 in Groningen in the Netherlands, ICAN has already become a tradition and it is to be hoped that work on the contextual embedding of the ancient novel will continue.
The book comprises thirteen essays unevenly distributed among four topic chapters. There is only one contribution in chapter two on the Jewish novel (dealing with Joseph and Aseneth in Greek literary history) while there are five on the apocryphal Acts, three on the connection between New Testament and hagiography, and four on intersections between the ancient novel and early Christian fictions. Each essay is written by a distinguished scholar who expertly and in depth tackles the most relevant issues of his or her topic. Readers get introduced and at the same time taught about various texts as the Protevangelium Jacobi, the Passio Perpetua, the Acts of John, and the Acts of Paul and Thekla, just to mention a few at least. Of course, ancient novels like Daphnis and Chloe (Longus), Leukippe and Kleitophon (Achilles Tatius), and the Alexander Romance are points of comparison throughout the volume; and it becomes self-evident that, for instance, the apocryphal Acts were both, influenced by the ancient novel and role models for further and later literature (e.g., possibly the Acts of Thecla for Heliodurus’ depiction of Charicleia the Martyr, as Rosa M. Andújar argues [pp. 139-152]).
It is surprising and even baffling that literature about the ancient novel, and that includes volumes like this collection of essays, too, are not adequately received and utilized by scholars of early Christianity and Church history, though for research in the field of late ancient narrative texts, such as the apocryphal Acts, the relevant and available studies are indispensable reference works. The proceedings of ICAN IV may be the missing link in order to make scholars of the relevant theological disciplines more aware of the interrelation of narrative literature in late antiquity. Introductions, abstracts, and indices help readers to find their way through the fluently written contributions to this high-quality and highly recommendable collection of essays.