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Title: Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman by Joyce E. Salisbury ISBN: 0-415-91837-5 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: a valuable book
Comment: In Perpetua's Passion, Salisbury has served two different communities very well---those interested in early Christianity, and those interested in the history of women. She deftly creates a sociology of life in a group of early Christian martyrs, and does so in a way that makes very clear family relations, gender roles, and the strength of Vibia Perpetua herself. I have used this book when teaching a course on ancient & medieval women (and will do so again), and found that it worked very well. Students found it readable and useful and thought-provoking.
Rating: 3
Summary: Author No Classicist!
Comment: Though this book is, on the whole, a useful one, it doesn't take a glimpse at the author's bio to quickly realize she is no classicist. How else can one explain two elementary errors back-to-back which, even to this amateur Roman historian, are as prominent as two sore thumbs?
On page 36 (Chapter 2, "The City" subsection) the author asserts Polybius "wrote circa 200 B.C." Why? Because those who claim he was BORN at that time are only making "scholarly estimates" (according to my "Polybius on Roman Imperialism")? Or because Salisbury breezily, and in this case incorrectly, assumed that Polybius was a contemporary of the events he most famously chronicled (an assumption that fails to hold for most Roman historical sources; cf. Suetonius, Tacitus)?
Similarly, a mere three paragraphs down, Salisbury claims Hannibal "crossed the Alps with his elephants and succeeded in laying siege to the city of Rome itself." I'd be prompted to ask "Why?" again if in this case the real reason weren't so blatant: Salisbury fliply read a history of the 2nd Punic War and just assumed that at the high-tide of his success Hannibal must have laid siege "to the city of Rome itself". This assertion is no more true than the Polybius one. In "Warfare in Antiquity" by Hans Delbruck (just one source where this can be found), the author states that Hannibal was so aware of his deficiencies in manpower and siege equipment that he knew "despite the greatest victories, he would not be capable of besieging and capturing Rome itself" (Chapter II).
I may seem to nitpick, but the errors I cited above are fundamental and have no place in a scholarly work, even if they are somewhat tangential to the book's main topic. I hope that in a future edition they will be corrected.
Rating: 3
Summary: The Seed of the Church
Comment: "Perpetua's Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman" is the story of Perpetua, a young Roman Christian who was martyred in 203 A.D. It is a book well worth reading...but it is also missing something.
I found Perpetua's Passion to be very well written and apparently well researched. Joyce E. Salisbury adeptly explores and explains the Roman and Carthaginian culture that Perpetua lived in. Mrs. Salisbury also seamlessly weaves into this tapestry a compelling picture of the Christian Church during the time of these events.
The book is based off of the diary that Perpetua kept during her captivity. Mrs. Salisbury explains the significance of Perpetua's actions in light of the culture of her day. She then shows the influence of Perpetua's story on the later Church.
All of this is very commendable. I was most impressed by the scholarship and insight of this book. Yet a question forms within me when I contemplate this book:
So what? Where is the heart in this book? There is nothing in this book which says anything about how these events speak to the soul of people today. Maybe I missed it...
What happened to Perpetua was more than a clinical historical event that affected the people immediately around her and eventually helped form certain patterns of thought within the Church. It was much more. It was a mortal being making an eternal statement. It was a moment in time where the Christian truth that there is more than this life was given a full embodiment in the actions of a young woman--A young woman who had every reason to live, yet for her, to die was gain. It was a moment of ultimate surrender, and at the same time, one of ultimate victory. The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church!
In the end, in spite of my objection, I recommend this book. It is insightful and instructive. However, don't just read this book with your head. Approach this one with your heart and your soul.
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Title: Muslim Women Mystics by Margaret Smith ISBN: 1851682503 Publisher: Oneworld Publications Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman ISBN: 0195141830 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Passion: Photography from the Movie the Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, Ken Duncan ISBN: 0842373624 Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.99 |
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Title: Passion of the Holy Martyrs Sts. Perpetua and Felicity by Saint Perpetua ISBN: 0899811337 Publisher: Eastern Orthodox Books Pub. Date: December, 1991 List Price(USD): $2.95 |
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