Smetto (e ricomincio) quando voglio. Nota critica di É. Rebillard, Les chrétiens de l’Antiquité tardive et leurs identités multiples (Afrique du Nord, 200-450 après J.-C.)

Éric Rebillard’s Les chrétiens de l’Antiquité tardive et leurs identités multiples (Afrique du Nord, 200-450 après J.-C.) is a thin but noteworthy book. It is also a bold one: an intelligent dismantling of assumptions and positions that are taken for granted by traditional scholarship results from its refined methodology. Setting the stage in Carthage between the time of Tertullian and Augustine, Rebillard persuasively shows that “Christianness” was only one of a plurality of identities available to be activated in a given situation. Far from being a mere tribute to Rebillard’s study, this paper intends to discuss and criticize its theoretical framework— Identity Theory—with reference to the question of how historically deep-rooted and structured relations of power create dispositions to act.