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Alexis Torrance, Thorns in the Flesh: Illness and Sanctity in Late Ancient Christianity. By Andrew Crislip., The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 64, Issue 2, October 2013, Pages 755–758, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flt159
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Crislip’s book comes as a welcome addition to the young but impressive Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series. It is likewise a fitting complement to his first monograph, From Monastery to Hospital. Where the first book deals more with developments in the institution of healing in the period, this one focuses on the nature of illness: how it was understood and problematized in a variety of ascetic Christian contexts. The methodological tools employed by Crislip in his study are diverse and ‘intentionally eclectic’ (p. 23), drawn as they are from cultural anthropology, social psychology, and phenomenology of religion, as well as medical humanities. Crislip’s grasp of the field of medical humanities is of particular note and demonstrates a praiseworthy ability to frame the topic in a constructively interdisciplinary way. The fact that Crislip’s first monograph received significant attention from academics in the history of medicine is no mean feat for a scholar of monasticism in late antiquity and testifies to his rare ability, exemplified also in this book, to make the significance and relevance of this relatively obscure field accessible to a wide range of specialisms.
