The product of a research group at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, this volume collects together eleven papers of great variety. The book's title can easily be taken to encompass most of religious life in late antiquity and the introduction does not develop the key notions of the title into a coherent interpretative framework. Individual chapters, especially the first four, engage somewhat with the theme, but the later ones only pay lip-service to it and go their own way. This being said, individual essays are generally of a good quality and worth reading. The first four focus on aspects of the formation of the self: Perrone on spiritual direction by Barsanuphius and John of Gaza, seen as leading to an annihilation of the self; Georgia Frank on Romanos Melodos on the newly baptised, which constructs baptism as a moment of regeneration and in which Satan is attributed a major literary role; in his analysis of the Great Kanon of Andrew of Crete, D. Krueger shows how the self is shaped by the institutional apparatus of the Church; B. Bitton-Ashkelony on the new self-formation in Symeon the New Theologian (stretching the definition of late antiquity a bit). Moving away from the self, A. Camplani hunts for traces of the role played by lay groups in the publication of historical texts. The suggestion is plausible, but the evidence very thin. In a somewhat discursive essay, S. Minov finds traces of Syriac identity formation in the sixth-century Cave of Treasures. Roger Scott effectively rebuts Kaldellis's claim that virtually all sixth-century classicising historians are pagans in disguise and emphasises the possibilities that sixth-century authors had to mark their doctrinal disagreement with the emperor's faith. Yonatan Moss shows how the elevation of patristic authors to immutable authorities led Severus of Antioch to creative interpretations of their texts, seeking to harmonise contradictions. He plausibly suggests influence from contemporary legal culture. A learned and useful survey of Julianism is offered by A. Kofsky, if debatable on certain points (such as the supposed link between circus factions and religious affiliation) and somewhat marred by missing or incomplete references to some sources. O. Irshai proposes to link the measures of Justinian against Jews celebrating Passover before Easter, alleged by Procopius (Anecdota 28.16-19), to the drawing up of a new paschal cycle in ad 552, on which Jews were also consulted. Finally, H. I. Newman shows that burning Haman was the crucial act during the Purim festival and that it reveals his status as the symbol of all enemies of Israel.