![]() ![]() ![]() Ecclesiastical leadership in cities employed demonological discourse and exorcistic practice-that is, diabolization-to a maintain congregations and Christianize the city. Finally, I present the centrality of diabolization in my thesis. I discuss the wider, historiographical background (Gibbon’s narrative of fall and decline replaced by late antiquity’s dynamic of continuity and transformation), which shaped my alternative view of the relationship between a perceived historical progression and imagined enchanted environment (Robert Orsi's abundant history, animistic history)-a relationship animated through ritual practice. To that end, I present the thesis, my methodology (intertwining material analyses-i.e., archaeology-and literary analyses), and theoretical approaches (anthropology, ritual theory). ![]() This chapter presents the book’s framework as: (1) a new form of cultural history (animistic history of demons in the city or ecclesiastical authority) and (2) historiographical critique (why have demonologies of late antique cities been neglected in scholarship?). ![]()
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