I had the opportunity to review Brent Nongbri's 2018 monograph, God's Library: The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts, for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR). The review was published a couple of weeks ago as an "Advance Article." Here's an extract:
Unusually, I want to begin this review with a confession. Several years ago, I was staying at Fondation Hardt in Geneva when a mutual friend put me in touch with Brent Nongbri. Nongbri was conducting research a few blocks away at Fondation Martin Bodmer. We had never met prior to this virtual introduction. We exchanged pleasantries, yet never managed to have that cup of coffee. And I distinctly remember thinking to myself: what on earth is someone who writes about Paul doing at the Bodmer?
I publicly admit my ignorance because it illustrates the degree to which, as Nongbri notes in the epilogue to...
The article is now available on OUP's website:
Robyn Faith Walsh, God’s Library: The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts. By Brent Nongbri, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2021; lfab039, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfab039.
Cover Image: P72 from the Bodmer Papyri.
