The Christian Invention of Time
Temporality and the Literature of Late Antiquity

With trademark flair, Simon Goldhill shows how Christianity transformed humanity's relationship with time in ways that resonate today.

Simon Goldhill (Author)

9781316512906, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 February 2022

516 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 3.1 cm, 0.85 kg

Time is integral to human culture. Over the last two centuries people's relationship with time has been transformed through industrialisation, trade and technology. But the first such life-changing transformation – under Christianity's influence – happened in late antiquity. It was then that time began to be conceptualised in new ways, with discussion of eternity, life after death and the end of days. Individuals also began to experience time differently: from the seven-day week to the order of daily prayer and the festal calendar of Christmas and Easter. With trademark flair and versatility, world-renowned classicist Simon Goldhill uncovers this change in thinking. He explores how it took shape in the literary writing of late antiquity and how it resonates even today. His bold new cultural history will appeal to scholars and students of classics, cultural history, literary studies, and early Christianity alike.

Introduction
Part I: 1. God's time
2. The time of death
3. Telling time
4. Waiting
5. Time and time again
6. Making time visible
7. At the same time
8. Timelessness and the now
9. Life times
10. The rape of time
Part II: 11. Beginning, again: Nonnus' paraphrase of the Gospel of John
12. The eternal return: Nonnus' Dionysiaca
13. Regulation time: Gregory's Christmas Day
14. Day to day
15. “We are the times”: Making history Christian
Coda: Writing in the time of sickness.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], History of religion [HRAX], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], Literature: history & criticism [DS]