Why did dreams matter to Jews, Byzantine Christians, and Muslims in the first millennium? Bronwen Neil shows how the three faiths took the pagan practice of divining the future from dreams and melded it with their own scriptural traditions to produce a novel and rich culture of dream interpretation.

Bronwen Neil is Professor of Ancient and Byzantine History at Macquarie University, and foundation director of the Macquarie University Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment (CACHE). She works on Greek and Latin literature of the first millennium CE, and the history of religious ideas and their influence on culture in this period.

• Abbreviations


• 1: Why Dreams Mattered in Late Antiquity


• 2: Scriptural Models of Dream Interpretation


• 3: Dreambooks: A Rival Tradition of Authority


• 4: Channeling the Divine: From Paganism to Monotheism


• 5: The Trouble with Dreams: Sayings of Monks, Rabbis, and the Prophet


• 6: Dreams and the Material World: New Developments


• 7: In the Footsteps of the Prophets: Dreams of War


• Epilogue: Why Dreams Still Matter


• Bibliography