Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity
Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity

Author: Peter Brown

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780299133443

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A preliminary report on continuing research into the political, cultural, and religious milieu of the later Roman Empire, from a humanist historiographic perspective. Discusses autocracy and the elites, power, poverty, and the forging of a Christian empire. Does not assume a knowledge of Latin. Paper edition (unseen), $12.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity
Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity

Author: Peter Brown

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1989-10-25

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780520068001

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With the blend of art and learning that is the hallmark of his work, Peter Brown here examines how the sacred impinged upon the profane during the first Christian millennium.

Authority and the Sacred
Authority and the Sacred

Author: Peter Brown

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-08-28

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 9780521595575

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His illuminating analysis of religious change as the art of the possible has a wide relevance for other periods and regions.

Doctrine and Power
Doctrine and Power

Author: Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2021-03-16

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0520383168

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During the fourth century a.d., theological controversy divided Christian communities throughout the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. At stake was not only the truth about God but also the authority of church leaders, whose legitimacy depended on their claims to represent that truth. In this book, Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho argues that out of these disputes was born a new style of church leadership, one in which the power of the episcopal office was greatly increased. He shows how these disputes compelled church leaders repeatedly to assert their orthodoxy and legitimacy—tasks that required them to mobilize their congregations and engage in action that continuously projected their power in the public arena. These developments were largely the work of prelates of the first half of the fourth century, but the style of command they inaugurated became the basis for a dynamic model of ecclesiastical leadership found throughout late antiquity.

Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine
Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine

Author: Peter Robert Lamont Brown

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2007-08-01

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1556351747

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Peter Brown, author of the celebrated 'Augustine of Hippo', has here gathered together his seminal articles and papers on the rapidly changing world of Saint Augustine. The collection is wide-ranging, dealing with political theory, social history, church history, historiography, theology, history of religions, and social anthropology. Saint Augustine is, of course, the central figure; and in an important introduction Peter Brown explains how the preoccupations of these essays led him to write the prize-winning biography. Brown then goes on to explore the heart of Augustine's political theory, not only showing how it factors in Augustine's thought, but also pointing to what is different from and similar to twentieth-century political thought.

A Greek Roman Empire
A Greek Roman Empire

Author: Fergus Millar

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-07-10

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 0520253914

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"This masterful study will have its place on every ancient historian's bookshelf."—Claudia Rapp, author of Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition

Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD
Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD

Author: Lieve Van Hoof

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-10-23

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 9004279474

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Late Antiquity is often assumed to have witnessed the demise of literature as a social force and its retreat into the school and the private reading room: whereas the sophists of the Second Sophistic were influential social players, their late antique counterparts are thought to have been overshadowed by bishops. Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD argues that this presumed difference should be attributed less to a fundamental change in the role of literature than to different scholarly methodologies with which Greek and Latin texts from the second and the fourth century are being studied. Focusing on performance, the literary construction of reality and self-presentation, this volume highlights how literature continued to play an important role in fourth-century elite society.

Paganism in the Roman Empire
Paganism in the Roman Empire

Author: Ramsay MacMullen

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1981-01-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780300029840

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"MacMullen...has published several books in recent years which establish him, rightfully, as a leading social historian of the Roman Empire. The current volume exhibits many of the characteristics of its predecessors: the presentation of novel, revisionist points of view...; discrete set pieces of trenchant argument which do not necessarily conform to the boundaries of traditional history; and an impressive, authoritative, and up-to-date documentation, especially rich in primary sources...A stimulating and provocative discourse on Roman paganism as a phenomenon worthy of synthetic investigation in its own right and as the fundamental context for the rise of Christianity.”--Richard Brilliant, History "MacMullen’s latest work represents many features of paganism in its social context more vividly and clearly than ever before.”--Fergus Millar, American Historical Review "The major cults...are examined from a social and cultural perspective and with the aid of many recently published specialized studies...Students of the Roman Empire...should read this book.”--Robert J, Penella, Classical World "A distinguished book with much exact observation...An indispensable mine of erudition on a grand theme.” Henry Chadwick, Times Literary Supplement Ramsay MacMullen is Dunham Professor of History and Classics at Yale University and the author of Roman Government’s Response to Crisis, A.D. 235-337 and Roman Social Relations, 50 B.C. to A.D. 284

Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire
Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire

Author: Averil Cameron

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-09-01

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780520915503

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Many reasons can be given for the rise of Christianity in late antiquity and its flourishing in the medieval world. In asking how Christianity succeeded in becoming the dominant ideology in the unpromising circumstances of the Roman Empire, Averil Cameron turns to the development of Christian discourse over the first to sixth centuries A.D., investigating the discourse's essential characteristics, its effects on existing forms of communication, and its eventual preeminence. Scholars of late antiquity and general readers interested in this crucial historical period will be intrigued by her exploration of these influential changes in modes of communication. The emphasis that Christians placed on language—writing, talking, and preaching—made possible the formation of a powerful and indeed a totalizing discourse, argues the author. Christian discourse was sufficiently flexible to be used as a public and political instrument, yet at the same time to be used to express private feelings and emotion. Embracing the two opposing poles of logic and mystery, it contributed powerfully to the gradual acceptance of Christianity and the faith's transformation from the enthusiasm of a small sect to an institutionalized world religion.