Books by Christopher P. Jones

Who and what was pagan depended on the outlook of the observer, as Christopher Jones shows in this fresh and penetrating analysis. Treating paganism as a historical construct rather than a fixed entity, Between Christian and Pagan uncovers the fluid ideas, rituals, and beliefs that Christians and pagans shared in Late Antiquity.

In this study of the political uses of perceived kinship from the Homeric age to Byzantium, Jones provides an unparalleled view of mythic belief in action and addresses fundamental questions about communal and national identity.

Heroes and heroines in antiquity inhabited a space somewhere between gods and humans. In this detailed, yet brilliantly wide-ranging analysis, Jones starts from literary heroes such as Achilles and moves to the historical record of those exceptional men and women who were worshiped after death.