Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity reconsiders the religious history of the late Roman Empire, focusing on the shifting position of dissenting religious groups - conventionally called 'pagans' and 'heretics'. The period from the mid-fourth century until the mid-fifth century CE witnessed a significant transformation of late Roman society and a gradual shift from the world of polytheistic religions into the Christian Empire.
This book challenges the many straightforward melodramatic narratives of the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, still prevalent both in academic research and in popular non-fiction works. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity demonstrates that the narrative is much more nuanced than the simple Christian triumph over the classical world. It looks at everyday life, economic aspects, day-to-day practices, and conflicts of interest in the relations of religious groups.
Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity addresses two aspects: rhetoric and realities, and consequently, delves into the interplay between the manifest ideologies and daily life found in late antique sources. It is a detailed analysis of selected themes and a close reading of selected texts, tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious groups. The book focuses on specific themes, such as the limits of imperial legislation and ecclesiastical control, the end of sacrifices, and the label of magic. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity examines the ways in which dissident religious groups were construed as religious outsiders, but also explores local rituals and beliefs in late Roman society as creative applications and expressions of the infinite range of human inventiveness.
Author(s): Maijastina Kahlos
Series: Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 280
City: Oxford
Cover
Series
Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350–450
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction: Rhetoric and realities
Religious dissenters
The emperors and the churches
Rhetoric and the realities of life
The themes of this book
SECTION I Imperial and ecclesiastical authority
1 The emperor and the dissenters
The rhetoric of public welfare and divine peace
Imperial striving for unity
2 The realities of legislation
Sound and fury
Good citizens and infamous dissenters
The realities of responsive legislation
The local realities of legislation
3 The bishops and the dissenters
Coping with diversity
Coping with the emperor
4 The local limits of imperial and ecclesiastical power
Patronage and local landowners
Laxity or tolerance?
5 Authority and aggression
The narrative of Christian triumphalism
Triumph as legitimation
Vigour and violence
Initiating aggression
Supporting aggression
Controlling, punishing, and criticizing aggression
Imperial and ecclesiastical authority: Concluding remarks
SECTION II People in rhetoric and realities
6 Individuals, groups, and plural possibilities in Late Antiquity
Naming, listing, and labelling
‘Christians’ and Christian self-perception
7 Otherness outside: Making pagans
Who were pagans? Stereotypes and realities
Flesh-and-blood pagans?
The first or last pagans? The self-perception of pagans
8 Deviance or otherness inside: Construing heretics
The making of heresies—and orthodoxy
Making Arians
Making Donatists
Making Pelagians
Heretics and social reality
9 Reactions
Accommodation: Conversion and conformity
Non-violent resistance: Eloquent appeals
Non-violent resistance: Silence and self-segregation
Confrontations: Verbal and physical violence
People in rhetoric and realities: Some conclusions
SECTION III Time, place, practices
10 The transformation of practices
In search of local religion
Sacrifices in Late Antiquity
The abhorrence of sacrifice
The realities of pollution?
Disappearances, continuities, and adaptations
11 Economics of practices
Competing for resources
Competing philanthropic practices
Blaming civic philanthropy
12 Sacred places and spaces
Shared cult places
Rhetoric of purification and reality of aesthetization
13 Sacred times and spaces
Feasts and spectacles
Christians and the New Year
The reality of popular needs
Funerary and martyr cults: Complaints and realities
14 Rhetoric and realities of magic
Dissenters and magic accusations
Roman suspicions and Christian fears
From traditional civic rituals to magic
From dissent Christianity to magic
Your magic, my miracle
Time, place, practices: Some conclusions
Conclusion: The darkening age or the victory of John Doe?
Authority: Attempts to control and define
People: Attempts to categorize people
Practices: Attempts to control practices
Bibliography
Index locorum
General Index
