Authority and the Sacred
Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World

Peter Brown (Author)

9780521595575, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 August 1997

108 pages
14.5 x 21.6 x 0.7 cm, 0.15 kg

' ... the treatment is fresh and independent'. The Times Literary Supplement

The Christianisation of the Roman world lies at the root of modern Europe, yet at the time it was a tentative and piecemeal process. Peter Brown's fascinating study examines the factors which proved decisive and the compromises which made the emergence of the Christian 'thought world' possible: how the the old gods of the Roman Empire could be reinterpreted as symbols to further the message of the Church. Peter Brown also shows how Christian holy men were less representative of a triumphant faith than negotiators of a working compromise between the new faith and traditional ways of dealing with the supernatural worlds.

Preface
1. Christianisation: narratives and process
2. The limits of intolerance
3. Arbiters of the Holy: the Christian holy man in late antiquity
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]