The Talmud Blog – Naomi Koltun-Fromm’s

After learning that Naomi Koltun-Fromm’s book on Aphrahat is due out, that “political theology” might better serve us than just “church-state” in Zoroastrian Iran, that Yazdegird did NOT persecute Christians, even at the end of his reign, and more, I spoke about bowls, seals (particularly Scott McDonough’s interesting example of a Catholicus’s administrative seals), the development of religion in Iran, a little bit of background on the “Elman revolution”which has concerned mostly Zoroastrian texts but essentially leads to a broader interest in the Bavli’s Sasanian context, and finally, a little bit of criticism against throwing up our hands at the difficulties of the evidence and the past sins of Orientalism.
more…
http://academictalmud.blogspot.com/2009/11/letter-from-new-orleans.html