Why care for the poor? The role of almsgiving in Jerome’s asceticism

The Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity (ZAC) is a refereed academic journal which aims at encouraging the dialogue between scholars of church history, history of religion, and classical antiquity with all its subdisciplines (classical and Christian Near Eastern philology, ancient history, classical and Christian archaeology, as well as the history of ancient philosophy and religion). In this context, ancient Christianity is understood in its complete prosopographic and doxographic breadth, with special emphasis on the influences of peripheral groups and related movements.

The Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum seeks to take into account that ancient Christianity developed through processes of reception and interchange with its Jewish and non-Christian environment, and can, therefore, only be researched in an interdisciplinary way. ZAC seeks to provide a forum for interdisciplinary exchange, and to act as a mediator between those disciplines that deal with ancient Christianity.

In all these efforts the journal acknowledges its debt to Hans Lietzmann (1875–1942) as well as to the French and Anglo-Saxon historiographical tradition on ancient Christianity. Yet, it is not the publication of a particular school, but open to all who research this area regardless of religion, denomination or language.

Each issue of the journal usually opens with a research report. At least once a year, important new findings and tendencies in epigraphy, papyrology, codicology and Christian archaeology are surveyed. A special rubric is dedicated to a report on new textual editions of Greek, Latin and Christian Near Eastern sources. In particular instances, there is a special section for smaller editions (inscriptions, catena fragments, sermons and letters). Occasionally, the Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum not only contains essays and short articles, but also a discussion section with short contributions to a special theme, reports on scholarly meetings, and important dates. The journal concludes with an extensive review section.

The Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum appears tri-annually with approx. 600 pages in toto. In general, contributions should be in German, English, French or Italian, concluded by either an English or German abstract. For the publication of inscriptions and archaeological findings, illustrative tables (in general black and white) are provided. Greek and Christian Near Eastern scripts are not transliterated, and always provided with a German, English or French translation.