Making amulets Christian : artefacts, scribes, and contexts De Bruyn, Theodore creator author. text bibliography enk 2017 2017 First edition. monographic eng print xx, 286 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. Making Amulets Christian: Artefacts, Scribes, and Contexts examines Greek amulets with Christian elements from late antique Egypt in order to discern the processes whereby a customary practice-the writing of incantations on amulets-changed in an increasingly Christian context. It considers how the formulation of incantations and amulets changed as the Christian church became the prevailing religious institution in Egypt in the last centuries of the Roman empire. Theodore de Bruyn investigates what can we learn from incantations and amulets containing Christian elements about the cultural and social location of the people who wrote them. He shows how incantations and amulets were indebted to rituals or ritualizing behaviour of Christians. This study analyzes different types of amulets and the ways in which they incorporate Christian elements. By comparing the formulation and writing of individual amulets that are similar to one another, one can observe differences in the culture of the scribes of these materials. It argues for 'conditioned individuality' in the production of amulets. On the one hand, amulets manifest qualities that reflect the training and culture of the individual writer. On the other hand, amulets reveal that individual writers were shaped, whether consciously or inadvertently, by the resources they drew upon-by what is called 'tradition' in the field of religious studies. Theodore de Bruyn. Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-267) and indexes. f-ua--- Amulets, Greek Egypt Church history Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600 Magic Religious aspects Christianity Incantations Amulets, Greek Church history Primitive and early church Incantations Magic Religious aspects Christianity Egypt 30-600 fast BR195 .A44 2017 270.1 Oxford early Christian studies 9780199687886 0199687889 2016962751 ERASA 170120 20171102142622.0 in00003907426 eng