La fin de la cité grecque: métamorphoses et disparition d'un modèle politique et institutionnel local en Asie Mineure, de Dèce à Constantin by Anne-Valérie Pont (review)

Abstract

new mode of ethical self-evaluation—a practical exercise of the imagination to nurse preventative caution where it had not existed before” (141). Why was death so fearful to Christians in this period? While the teachings of the church were clear that the soul lay in wait after death, as though asleep until the general resurrection and judgment at the end of time, contemporary apocryphal writings like the Vision of Paul depicted an afterlife immediately after death but preceding the judgement, where human souls persisted in recognizable bodies that were vulnernable to physical punishment commeasurate with their sins (Chapter 4). Muhlberger dubs this alarming new phase of human existence the “postmortal.” It is the fear of punishment in the postmortal state of the soul, determined at the moment of death, that lent late antique sermons on dying their efficacy. One of the strengths of this chapter is the insight that pseudepigrapha like the Vision of Paul did not introduce these ideas but rather responded to their growing popularity long before they achieved any official authority as doctrine. Muhlberger argues that this new understanding of the immediate fate of the soul after death justified forcing others to adopt correct Chrisian beliefs in order to help them to avoid the fates awaiting them in their postmortal state (Chapter 5). In doing so, she shows how pastoral care could have a direct influence on political action by “chang[ing] the boundaries of [Christians’] ethics, in particular what they thought it acceptable to do to one another” (184). There is much to admire in this thoughtful and eloquent book. While some of the sources are well known from other studies of death culture in Late Antiquity—most notably, Augustine’s letters—Muhlberger also brings to light new material in support of her argument. Her examination of Jacob of Serugh’s unpublished Syriac sermon On the Hour of Death is both moving and revelatory. The question of causation lingers throughout the book. Why did Christian preachers evoke with such realism the moment of death across the late ancient world at this particular time? Did their rhetorical training inspire them to take up this topic so vividly, or did they simply apply this training to an emergent pastoral concern? Mulhberger acknowledges these questions (140, note 90), but they remain unresolved. In addition to its other merits, Moment of Reckoning also serves as a stimulating point of departure for a longer conversation about the fate of the soul in late ancient thought.