Acknowledgments
The present study is the result of the project “Manichaeans and Others in Fourth-Century Egypt: The Mechanisms of Religious Change in Late Antiquity,” subsidized by the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Research (NWO). I am grateful for the encouragement and unwavering support of my colleagues at Leiden University, in particular Albert de Jong and Jacques van der Vliet. The insight and feedback of these two foremost specialists in religion, ancient Iran, and late antique Egypt has been of great importance not only to this project, but also to my overall academic development.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to discuss the topics of this book with a number of scholars. For feedback and discussion of the papyri and archaeology of Kellis, I would like to thank Olaf Kaper, Klaas Worp, Iain Gardner, Majella Franzmann, Colin Hope, Gillian Bowen, Jennifer Cromwell, Rea Matsangou, Markus Davidsen, Renate Dekker, Jae H. Han, Brent Nongbri, and Eline Scheerlinck. For giving me access to some of their unpublished work, I thank Nils Arne Pedersen, Ewa Zakrzewska, and Eldon Molto. While I have been in touch with Håkon F. Teigen, his The Manichaean Church in Kellis only reached my desk at a late stage in the publication process. I am sure that the differences in our approach and interpretation will stimulate further academic exchange in the near future.
The revision of this book benefitted from the support of my new institutional home, the University of Zürich, and the encouragement of my colleagues in the Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar. I am grateful to Johannes van Oort for accepting Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis in Brill’s Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies series. Detailed feedback was provided by the anonymous reviewers, whose scholarship is a source of inspiration, even when we disagree about important questions like the classification of Manichaeism. The various opportunities to discuss such questions during the conferences and workshops of the International Association of Manichaean Studies have profoundly shaped my approach to the Kellis papyri. I also greatly appreciate the careful editorial work of Johannah Swank Baltensperger and Marieke Krijnen in the final stages of revising this book, making it more accessible for a wide audience of readers. Likewise, Diana Haibucher’s and Adam Bremer-McCollum’s feedback was more than helpful in bringing the manuscript to completion. Needless to say, all remaining errors are mine.
Looking back on the last few years, I realize how the involvement of all these colleagues and friends made this a better book: thank you. Finally, I dedicate this book to my parents, with love and gratitude.
Mattias Brand
Zürich, July 2021