"Laura Nasrallah Plumbs the 'Gossip Pages of Early Christian History'"

Dreams, prophecy, and visions are so often understood as irrational, embarrassing phenomena. Anthropologists and sociologists often say, "Well, that's what poor people or women do to act out or gain some sort of authority that's outside of the central forms of authority available in a given culture."

So I wanted to think about that, and in doing so, I realized that in antiquity, these are not at all peripheral phenomena. Everyone uses prophecies, visions, and dreams to talk about important political and epistemological issues. How do you know what you know? Can you gain this knowledge not only through education and study, but also through other means, like prophecy or visions? These may be methods that some of us today don't take seriously, but in antiquity they were actually central—while at the same time being incredibly contested.