List of Figures List of Contributors General Introduction Emilie M. van Opstall Part 1 Experiencing Sacred Thresholds 1 On the Threshold Paul the Silentiary's Ekphrasis of Hagia Sophia Emilie M. van Opstall 2 Entering the Baptistery Spatial, Identity and Salvific Transitions in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Baptismal Liturgies Juliette Day 3 From Taboo to Icon The Entrance to and the Exit from the Church in the First Three Greek Liturgical Commentaries (ca 500-730 CE) Christian Boudignon 4 Bonus Intra, Melior Exi! 'Inside' and 'Outside' at Greek Incubation Sanctuaries Ildikó Csepregi Part 2 Symbolism and Allegory 0f Sanctuary Doors 5 Sanctuary Doors, Vestibules and Adyta in the Works of Neoplatonic Philosophers Lucia Maddalena Tissi 6 The Paradise of Saint Peter's Sible L. de Blaauw 7 Imagining the Entrance to the Afterlife Peter as the Gatekeeper of Heaven in Early Christianity Roald Dijkstra Part 3 Messages in Stone 8 The Queen of Inscriptions Contextualized The Presence of Civic Inscriptions in the pronaos of Ancient Temples in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor (Fourth Century BCE--Second Century CE) Evelien J.J. Roels 9 Versus De Limine and In Limine Displaying Greek paideia at the Entrance of Early Christian Churches Gianfranco Agosti 10 The Door to the Sanctuary from Paulinus of Nola to Gregory of Tours Enduring Characteristics and Evolutions from the Theodosian to the Merovingian Period Gaëlle Herbert de la Portbarré-Viard Part 4 The Presence of the Divine 11 Filters of Light Greek Temple Doors as Portals of Epiphany Christina G. Williamson 12 The Other Door of the Sanctuary The Apse and Divine Entry in the Early Byzantine Church Brooke Shilling.