Means of Christian Conversion in Late Antiquity

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9788021099791
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis Means of Christian Conversion in Late Antiquity by : Klára Dolezalová

Download or read book Means of Christian Conversion in Late Antiquity written by Klára Dolezalová and published by . This book was released on 2022-02-03 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents the proceedings of the conference Materiality and Conversion: The Role of Material and Visual Cultures in the Christianization of the Latin West organized by the Centre for Early Medieval Studies in 2020. Its contributions thus focus on the Christianization of the Roman Empire between the fourth and sixth centuries. The studies examine the religious change through the "material turn" approach, building on the material and sensorial dimension of Christian conversion and especially the baptismal rite as one of the key components of the process. The material and visual cultures are regarded as vectors and witnesses of conversion to Christianity, while human body is viewed as one of the agents in ritual actions. The volume covers a wide range of topics, including the prebaptismal purification, the moment of immersion in the baptismal font, the postbaptismal alteration of perception, as well as the continuous changes in funeral forms. As such, the papers attempt to shed more light on the role of materiality in the complex and rapid conversion to Christianity in Late Antique West.

Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity

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Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812203461
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity by : Jeremy M. Schott

Download or read book Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity written by Jeremy M. Schott and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity, Jeremy M. Schott examines the ways in which conflicts between Christian and pagan intellectuals over religious, ethnic, and cultural identity contributed to the transformation of Roman imperial rhetoric and ideology in the early fourth century C.E. During this turbulent period, which began with Diocletian's persecution of the Christians and ended with Constantine's assumption of sole rule and the consolidation of a new Christian empire, Christian apologists and anti-Christian polemicists launched a number of literary salvos in a battle for the minds and souls of the empire. Schott focuses on the works of the Platonist philosopher and anti- Christian polemicist Porphyry of Tyre and his Christian respondents: the Latin rhetorician Lactantius, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the emperor Constantine. Previous scholarship has tended to narrate the Christianization of the empire in terms of a new religion's penetration and conquest of classical culture and society. The present work, in contrast, seeks to suspend the static, essentializing conceptualizations of religious identity that lie behind many studies of social and political change in late antiquity in order to investigate the processes through which Christian and pagan identities were constructed. Drawing on the insights of postcolonial discourse analysis, Schott argues that the production of Christian identity and, in turn, the construction of a Christian imperial discourse were intimately and inseparably linked to the broader politics of Roman imperialism.

From Shame to Sin

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674074564
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis From Shame to Sin by : Kyle Harper

Download or read book From Shame to Sin written by Kyle Harper and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformation of the Roman world from polytheistic to Christian is one of the most sweeping ideological changes of premodern history. At the center was sex. Kyle Harper examines how Christianity changed the ethics of sexual behavior from shame to sin, and shows how the roots of modern sexuality are grounded in an ancient religious revolution.

Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110486075
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity by : Dirk Rohmann

Download or read book Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity written by Dirk Rohmann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-07-25 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is estimated that only a small fraction, less than 1 per cent, of ancient literature has survived to the present day. The role of Christian authorities in the active suppression and destruction of books in Late Antiquity has received surprisingly little sustained consideration by academics. In an approach that presents evidence for the role played by Christian institutions, writers and saints, this book analyses a broad range of literary and legal sources, some of which have hitherto been little studied. Paying special attention to the problem of which genres and book types were likely to be targeted, the author argues that in addition to heretical, magical, astrological and anti-Christian books, other less obviously subversive categories of literature were also vulnerable to destruction, censorship or suppression through prohibition of the copying of manuscripts. These include texts from materialistic philosophical traditions, texts which were to become the basis for modern philosophy and science. This book examines how Christian authorities, theologians and ideologues suppressed ancient texts and associated ideas at a time of fundamental transformation in the late classical world.

Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

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Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
ISBN 13 : 9781580461252
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (612 download)

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Book Synopsis Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages by : Kenneth Mills

Download or read book Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages written by Kenneth Mills and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2003 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A re-examination of the social processes behind religious conversions in the Ancient and Early Middle Ages. This volume explores religious conversion in late antique and early medieval Europe at a time when the utility of the concept is vigorously debated. Though conversion was commonly represented by ancient and early medieval writersas singular and personally momentous mental events, contributors to this volume find gradual and incomplete social processes lurking behind their words. A mixture of examples and approaches will both encourage a deepening of specialist knowledge and spark new thinking across a variety of sub-fields. The historical settings treated here stretch from the Roman Hellenism of Justin Martyr in the second century to the ninth-century programs of religious and moral correction by resourceful Carolingian reformers. Baptismal orations, funerary inscriptions, Christian narratives about the conversion of stage-performers, a bronze statue of Constantine, early Byzantine ethnographic writings, and re-located relics are among the book's imaginative points of entry. This focused collection of essays by leading scholars, and the afterword by Neil McLynn, should ignite conversations among students of religious conversion andrelated processes of cultural interaction, diffusion, and change both in the historical sub-fields of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and well beyond. This book is one of two collections of essays on religious conversion drawn from the activities of the Shelby Cullum Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University between 1999 and 2001. The other volume, Conversion: Old Worlds and New, is also published by the Universityof Rochester Press. Contributors: Susan Elm, Anthony Grafton, Richard Lim, Rebecca Lyman, Michael Maas, Neil McLynn, Kenneth Mills, Eric Rebillard, Julia M. H. Smith, Raymond Van Dam.

Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004422617
Total Pages : 118 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity by : Mark Humphries

Download or read book Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity written by Mark Humphries and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-11-04 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last half century has seen an explosion in the study of late antiquity, which has characterised the period between the third and seventh centuries not as one of catastrophic collapse and ‘decline and fall’, but rather as one of dynamic and positive transformation. Yet research on cities in this period has provoked challenges to this positive picture of late antiquity. This study surveys the nature of this debate, examining problems associated with the sources historians use to examine late antique urbanism, and the discourses and methodological approaches they have constructed from them. It aims to set out the difficulties and opportunities presented by the study of cities in late antiquity in terms of transformations of politics, the economy, and religion, and to show that this period witnessed very real upheaval and dislocation alongside continuity and innovation in cities around the Mediterranean.

Christianizing Egypt

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691216789
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianizing Egypt by : David Frankfurter

Download or read book Christianizing Egypt written by David Frankfurter and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a culture become Christian, especially one that is heir to such ancient traditions and spectacular monuments as Egypt? This book offers a new model for envisioning the process of Christianization by looking at the construction of Christianity in the various social and creative worlds active in Egyptian culture during late antiquity. As David Frankfurter shows, members of these different social and creative worlds came to create different forms of Christianity according to their specific interests, their traditional idioms, and their sense of what the religion could offer. Reintroducing the term “syncretism” for the inevitable and continuous process by which a religion is acculturated, the book addresses the various formations of Egyptian Christianity that developed in the domestic sphere, the worlds of holy men and saints’ shrines, the work of craftsmen and artisans, the culture of monastic scribes, and the reimagination of the landscape itself, through processions, architecture, and the potent remains of the past. Drawing on sermons and magical texts, saints’ lives and figurines, letters and amulets, and comparisons with Christianization elsewhere in the Roman empire and beyond, Christianizing Egypt reconceives religious change—from the “conversion” of hearts and minds to the selective incorporation and application of strategies for protection, authority, and efficacy, and for imagining the environment.

Christian Divination in Late Antiquity

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Publisher : Amsterdam University Press
ISBN 13 : 9048541018
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (485 download)

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Book Synopsis Christian Divination in Late Antiquity by : Robert Wisniewski

Download or read book Christian Divination in Late Antiquity written by Robert Wisniewski and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-21 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Late Antiquity, people commonly sought to acquire knowledge about the past, the present, and the future, using a variety of methods. While early Christians did not doubt that these methods worked effectively, in theory they were not allowed to make use of them. In practice, people responded to this situation in diverse ways. Some simply renounced any hope of learning about the future, while others resorted to old practices regardless of the consequences. A third option, however, which emerged in the fourth century, was to construct divinatory methods that were effective yet religiously tolerable. This book is devoted to the study of such practices and their practitioners, and provides answers to essential questions concerning this phenomenon. How did it develop? How closely were Christian methods related to older, traditional customs? Who used them and in which situations? Who offered oracular services? And how were they treated by the clergy, intellectuals, and common people?

The Manly Eunuch

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226457390
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (573 download)

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Book Synopsis The Manly Eunuch by : Mathew Kuefler

Download or read book The Manly Eunuch written by Mathew Kuefler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-07-25 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of masculinity formed a key part of the intellectual life of late antiquity and was crucial to the development of Christian society. This idea is at the heart of Mathew Kuefler's new book, which revisits the Roman Empire during the third and fifth centuries of the common era. Kuefler argues that the collapse of the Roman army, an increasingly autocratic government, and growing restrictions on the traditional rights of men within marriage and sexuality all led to an endemic crisis in masculinity: men of Roman aristocracy, who had always felt themselves to be soldiers, statesmen, and the heads of households, became, by their own definition, unmanly. The cultural and demographic success of Christianity during this epoch lay in the ability of its leaders to recognize and respond to this crisis. Drawing on the tradition of gender ambiguity in early Christian teachings, which included Jesus's exhortation that his followers "make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven," Christian writers and thinkers crafted a new masculine ideal, one that took advantage of the changing social realities in Rome, inverted the Roman model of manliness, and helped solidify Christian ideology by reinstating the masculinity of its adherents.

Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691188165
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice by : Richard Valantasis

Download or read book Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice written by Richard Valantasis and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an unprecedented collection of nearly seventy Late Antique primary religious texts. These texts--all in new English translation and many appearing in English for the first time--represent every major religious current from the late first century until the rise of Islam. Produced through the efforts of thirty-six leading scholars in the field, they constitute a comprehensive view of religious practice in Late Antiquity. Religious life and performance during this period comprised diverse, often unusual practices. Philosophical ascent, magic, legal pronouncement, hymnography, dietary and sexual restriction, and rhetoric were all part of this deeply fascinating world. Religious and political identity often intertwined, as reflected in the Roman persecution of Christians. And a fluid boundary between religion and superstition was contested in daily life. Many practices, including ascetic training, crossed religious boundaries. Others, such as "incubation" at specific temples and certain divination rites, were distinctive practices of individual groups and orders. Intrinsically interesting, the practice of religion in the Late Antique also edifies modern-day religious life. As this volume shows, the origins of the contemporary Western religious terrain can be gleaned in this period. Rabbinic Judaism flourished and spread. Christianity developed still-important theological categories and structures. And even movements that did not survive intact--such as Neoplatonism and the once-powerful Manichaean churches--continue to influence religion today. This rich sourcebook includes discussions of asceticism, religious organization, ritual, martyrdom, religion's social implications, law, and theology. Its unique emphasis on practice and its inclusion of texts translated from lesser-known languages advance the study of religious history in several directions. A strong interdisciplinary orientation will reward scholars and students of religion, theology, gender studies, classical literatures, and history. Each text is accompanied by an introduction and a bibliography for further reading and research, making the book appropriate for use in any university or seminary classroom.

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199713545
Total Pages : 829 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion by : Lewis R. Rambo

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion written by Lewis R. Rambo and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 829 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon. This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.

The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0190222271
Total Pages : 517 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity by : Ross Shepard Kraemer

Download or read book The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity written by Ross Shepard Kraemer and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity examines the fate of Jews living in the Mediterranean Jewish diaspora after the Roman emperor Constantine threw his patronage to the emerging orthodox (Nicene) Christian churches. By the fifth century, much of the rich material evidence for Greek and Latin-speaking Jews in the diaspora diminishes sharply. Ross Shepard Kraemer argues that this increasing absence of evidence is evidence of increasing absence of Jews themselves. Literary sources, late antique Roman laws, and archaeological remains illuminate how Christian bishops and emperors used a variety of tactics to coerce Jews into conversion: violence, threats of violence, deprivation of various legal rights, exclusion from imperial employment, and others. Unlike other non-orthodox Christians, Jews who resisted conversion were reluctantly tolerated, perhaps because of beliefs that Christ's return required their conversion. In response to these pressures, Jews leveraged political and social networks for legal protection, retaliated with their own acts of violence, and sometimes became Christians. Some may have emigrated to regions where imperial laws were more laxly enforced, or which were under control of non-orthodox (Arian) Christians. Increasingly, they embraced forms of Jewish practice that constructed tighter social boundaries around them. The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity concludes that by the beginning of the seventh century, the orthodox Christianization of the Roman Empire had cost diaspora Jews--and all non-orthodox persons, including Christians--dearly.

Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E.

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780195154603
Total Pages : 504 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (546 download)

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Book Synopsis Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E. by : Bart D. Ehrman

Download or read book Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E. written by Bart D. Ehrman and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E: A Reader collects primary sources of the early Christian world, from the last "Great Persecution" under Emperor Diocletian to the Council of Chalcedon in the mid-fifth century. During this period Christianity rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, developed new notions of sanctity and heresy, and spread beyond the Mediterranean world. This reader incorporates standard texts--from authors such as Athanasius, Augustine, and Eusebius--in the most recent translations and also includes less familiar texts, some of which appear in English translation for the first time. Presented in their entirety or in long excerpts, the texts are arranged thematically and cover such topics as orthodoxy, conversion, asceticism, and art and architecture. The editors provide introductions for each chapter, text, and image, situating the selections historically, geographically, and intellectually. Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E.: A Reader highlights the ways in which religion and culture were mutually transformed during this crucial historical period. Ideal for courses in Early Christianity, Christianity in Late Antiquity, and History of Christianity, this reader is an excellent companion to Bart D. Ehrman's After the New Testament (OUP, 1998) and an exceptional

Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond

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Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1409457389
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond by : Dr Neil McLynn

Download or read book Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond written by Dr Neil McLynn and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-09-28 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers in this volume investigate the two important movements of conversion that frame late antiquity: Christianity and Islam. Despite their historical significance, those two movements of conversion have never been systematically compared to each other, and this volume attempts to do this by studying the various issues at stake in conversion for both religions. Some perspectives from the rise of Buddhism in East Asia at roughly the same period have been included so as to avoid remaining within purely Mediterranean and monotheistic models.

Transformed by Emigration

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9788021097094
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (97 download)

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Book Synopsis Transformed by Emigration by : Ivan Foletti

Download or read book Transformed by Emigration written by Ivan Foletti and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thematic framework of this special issue is an examination of the impact Russian emigres had on the humanities and art. From art history to philosophy, artistic creation to ecumenical dialogue, the volume is dedicated to figures who, through their emigration from Russia, transformed their places of arrival and relevant fields. The articles in the volume assess these topics from an interdisciplinary point of view, extending the usual horizons of Convivium to other fields as well. The volume was published as the proceedings of the conference Transformed by Emigration. Welcoming Russian Intellectuals, Scientists, and Artists 1917-1945 held at the Hans Belting Library in February 2019.

Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire

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Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633862566
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire by : Marianne Sághy

Download or read book Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire written by Marianne Sághy and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do the terms 'pagan' and 'Christian,' 'transition from paganism to Christianity' still hold as explanatory devices to apply to the political, religious and cultural transformation experienced Empire-wise? Revisiting 'pagans' and 'Christians' in Late Antiquity has been a fertile site of scholarship in recent years: the paradigm shift in the interpretation of the relations between 'pagans' and 'Christians' replaced the old 'conflict model' with a subtler, complex approach and triggered the upsurge of new explanatory models such as multiculturalism, cohabitation, cooperation, identity, or group cohesion. This collection of essays, inscribes itself into the revisionist discussion of pagan-Christian relations over a broad territory and time-span, the Roman Empire from the fourth to the eighth century. A set of papers argues that if 'paganism' had never been fully extirpated or denied by the multiethnic educated elite that managed the Roman Empire, 'Christianity' came to be presented by the same elite as providing a way for a wider group of people to combine true philosophy and right religion. The speed with which this happened is just as remarkable as the long persistence of paganism after the sea-change of the fourth century that made Christianity the official religion of the State. For a long time afterwards, 'pagans' and 'Christians' lived 'in between' polytheistic and monotheist traditions and disputed Classical and non-Classical legacies.

From Temple to Church

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004131418
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis From Temple to Church by : Johannes Hahn

Download or read book From Temple to Church written by Johannes Hahn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Destruction of temples and their transformation into churches are central symbols of change in religious environment, socio-political system, and public perception in late antiquity. Archaeologists, historians, and historians of religion seek an appropriate larger perspective on the phenomenon a oetemple-destructiona .