Youval Rotman proposes to examine the extreme behaviour of holy fools, martyrs, and ascetics in its ancient context, surveying the concept of 'insanity' as it was understood in Byzantium (here broadly defined as the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East in the period between the birth of Christianity and the rise of Islam). He argues that these figures, whose behaviour was considered as insane by contemporaries as well as modern scholars, were also seen as saints and that their sanctified insanity served as a means to redefine social and cultural norms.

Youval Rotman. Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium: The Ambiguity of Religious Experience. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2016.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR). Review by Aaltje Hidding, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich