This volume represents the final output of a long-standing collaboration
by an international and cross-disciplinary team sponsored by the Centre
for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. It
tells the history of human cultural production in the Eastern
Mediterranean rather than the history of specific states or religions.
Simultaneously, the volume argues that the agency of local communities
is a key to understanding the history of long-term change and cultural
production in the Levant. It narrates the story of the crystallization
of a type of sub-imperial power, illustrated by the canonical discourses
associated with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.