"Blake Leyerle offers the first sustained treatment of the pedagogy of emotions by which John Chrysostom, one of late antiquity's most revered preachers, sought to craft his audiences' Christian habits. Nuanced, captivating, and accessible to experts and generalists alike, this book presents the reader with a scintillating glimpse into the emotional worlds that ancient Christians inhabited and the voices that shaped them."—Maria Doerfler, author of Jephthah's Daughter, Sarah's Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity
"In this rich and beautifully written book, Blake Leyerle conveys the rhetorical and psychological genius of John Chrysostom, a master storyteller and incomparable preacher. As she brilliantly demonstrates, Chrysostom brought to life biblical and other narratives to manage the anger, fears, sorrows, and shame of his audience in the service of Christianity."—David Konstan, Professor of Classics, New York University