Eric Rebillard

Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities

120 Goldwin Smith Hall
er97@cornell.edu
607/255-8640

Education

Professor Rebillard received his PhD from the Sorbonne (Paris, France) in 1993 and is a former member of the Ecole française de Rome. He came at Cornell in 2004 after having held a research position in the French CNRS between 1996 and 2003.

Departments and programs

Archaeology Program
Classics
History
Jewish Studies Program
Medieval Studies Program
Near Eastern Studies
Religious Studies Program

Affiliated Colleges

College of Arts and Sciences

Keywords

Roman History

Overview

I study the transformations of religious practices in Late Antiquity.

My most recent work deals with early Christian martyr narratives. I published a new collection of texts: Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs, in the Oxford Early Christian Texts series (2017) and a monograph: The Early Martyr Narratives: Neither Authentic Accounts Nor Forgeries (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion; University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).

Eighteen prior papers of mine have been translated into English and collected in a volume of the Variorum Collected Studies Series: Transformations of Religious Practices in Late Antiquity (Ashgate 2014).

Christians and their Many Identities, which was published by Cornell University Press in 2012, is now available as a paperback.

While a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020-21, I started to work on a new project, entitled a redescription of the triumph of Christianity.

Research Focus

History of Late Antiquity and Early Christianity
Augustine of Hippo
Roman Funerary Archaeology

Publications

Books

The Early Martyr Narratives: Neither Authentic Accounts Nor Forgeries. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020.
Greek and Latin Narratives about the Ancient Martyrs. Oxford Early Christian Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Transformations of Religious Practices in Late Antiquity. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2014.
Christians and their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012 (paperback 2016).
The Care of the Dead in Late Antiquity. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009 [English translation of Religion et sépulture: l’Église, les vivants et les morts dans l’Antiquité tardive (IIIe-Ve siècles). Civilisations et sociétés 115. Paris: Éd. de l’EHESS, 2003].
Musarna. 3, La nécropole impériale. Collection de l’École française de Rome 415. Rome: École française de Rome, 2009.
In hora mortis: évolution de la pastorale chrétienne de la mort aux IVe et Ve siècles dans l’Occident latin. Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome 283. Rome: École française de Rome, 1994.

Edited volumes

Group Identity and Religious Individuality in Late Antiquity. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Jörg Rüpke. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2015.
Les frontières du profane dans l’Antiquité tardive. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Rome: École française de Rome, 2010.
Economie et religion dans l’Antiquité tardive. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Special issue of Antiquité tardive 14 (2006): 15-116.
Hellénisme et christianisme. Edited by Michel Narcy and Éric Rebillard. Lille: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2004.
Orthodoxie, christianisme, histoire = Orthodoxy, christianity, history. Collection de l’École française de Rome 270. Edited by Susanna Elm, Éric Rebillard and Antonella Romano, Rome: École française de Rome, 2000.
L’évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle: image et autorité. Collection de l’École française de Rome 248. Edited by Éric Rebillard and Claire Sotinel. Rome: École française de Rome, 1998.