Social and historical setting

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521460835.038

37 - Social and historical setting

from B - CONTEXT AND INTERPRETATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Edited by

Lewis Ayres and

Assisted by

Frances Young: Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Lewis Ayres: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Andrew Louth: Affiliation:
University of Durham
Augustine Casiday: Affiliation:
University of Durham

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In the aftermath of the crises of the third century the Roman Empire was transformed in the time of the Emperors Diocletian (284–305) and Constantine (proclaimed emperor 306; in power over Western Empire from 312; sole emperor 324–37). The administrative structure, the society, the imperial office and the court underwent far-reaching changes under their reforms. The secular changes in the Empire could not fail to affect the life of the Christian Church. None, however, cut as deeply into its historical development as the change in its worldly status initiated by the advent of the first Christian emperor. Constantine’s victory over his rival in 312, represented as God-given, seemed to usher in a new era. Not – as is often said – because it allowed the Christian Church to grow from a minority cult into a recognized, soon to be a dominant, and eventually legally enforced, religion. It had been well on the way to respectability in the later third century; and its full legal ‘establishment’ did not come about until the end of the fourth. The significance of the ‘Constantinian revolution’ lies rather in the fact that it transformed, almost overnight, the conditions of the Church’s existence.

The main directions in the Church’s development had been established in the first three centuries of its existence. The Church entered the fourth century with a set of beliefs and an organizational structure which gave it a recognizable identity. During the last forty years of the third century it had also spread rapidly and extensively. Its membership was no longer largely confined to the lower social ranks; it was very different from the way its opponents liked to represent it: as a secretive and outlandish sect of underprivileged and uneducated outcasts. In the rare cases where some estimate of the size and composition of the Christian community is possible, its membership seems to have been a cross-section of the Roman urban classes. The Church, though certainly still a minority,was a very much larger minority than it had been in the first half of the third century, and it now embraced the whole range of Roman urban society, from the aristocracy to the urban proletariat.

Keywords

Constantinian revolution pagan Romans Christianity Church social relations Roman society

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature , pp. 397 - 413

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521460835.038 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ayres, L. and Jones, G., eds, Christian Origins. Theology, Rhetoric and Community (London: Routledge, 1998).

Ayres, L. Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).

Bagnall, R. S. Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Barnes, M. R. and Williams, D. H., eds, Arianism after Arius. Essays on the Development of the Fourth-Century Trinitarian Controversies (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993).

Barnes, T. D. New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).

Bowersock, G. W. Julian the Apostate (London: Duckworth, 1978).

Bowersock, G. W. Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Brennecke, H. C. Studien zur Geschichte der Homöer. Der Osten bis zum Ende der homöischen Reichskirche (Tübingen: Mohr, 1988).

Brown, P. ‘The Patrons of Pelagius: The Roman Aristocracy between East and West’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 21 (1970) (reprinted in ,Religion and Society).Google Scholar

Brown, P. Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London: Faber, 1972).

Brown, P. Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (London: Faber, 1982).

Brown, P. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

Brown, P. Authority and the Sacred (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Brown, P. The Rise of Western Christendom. Triumph and Diversity, AD 200–1000, The Making of Europe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996).Google Scholar

Burrus, Virginia The Making of a Heretic: Gender Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).

Burrus, Virginia Begotten, Not Made: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).

Cameron, Averil and Garnsey, P., eds, The Cambridge Ancient History, XIII: The Late Empire, A.D. 337–425 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar

Casiday, A. M. ‘Apatheia and Sexuality in the Thought of Augustine and Cassian’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 45 (2001).Google Scholar

Caspar, E. Geschichte des Papsttums, II (Tübingen: Mohr, 1933).

Cochrane, C. N. Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957).

Conybeare, C. Paulinus Noster. Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, Oxford Early Christian Texts (2000).

Daley, B. E. ‘Nature and the “Mode of Union”: Late Patristic Models for the Personal Unity of Christ’, in O’Collins, Gerald et al., eds, The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002).Google Scholar

Daniélou, J. ‘Eunome l’arien et l’exégèse néo-platonicienne du «Cratyle»’, Revue des etudes grecques 69 (1956).Google Scholar

Drinkwater, J. and Elton, H., eds, Fifth-Century Gaul: a Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

Edwards, M. ed. and trans., Neoplatonic Saints. The Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Translated Texts for Historians 35 (2000).

Fitschen, K. Messalianismus und Antimessalianismus. Ein Beispiel ostkirchliche Ketzergeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998).

Frend, W. H. C. The Donatist Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952).

Geffcken, J. Der Ausgang des griechisch-römischen Heidentums (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1929).

Greshake, G. Gnade als konkrete Freiheit. Eine Untersuchung zur Gnadenlehre des Pelagius (Mainz: Matthias-Grunwald-Verlag, 1972).

Gribomont, J. ‘Le dossier des origines du messalianisme’, in Fontaine, J. and Kannengiesser, Ch., eds, Epectasis. Mélanges patristiques offerts au Cardinal Jean Daniélou, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972).Google Scholar

Grillmeier, A. SJ and Bacht, H. SJ, eds, Das Konzil von Chalkedon, 3 vols (Würzburg: EchterVerlag, 1951–4).

Gryson, R. ed., Scolies ariennes sur le Concile d’Aquilée, Sources chrétiennes 267 (1980).

Hanson, R. P. C. The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. The Arian Controversy 318–381 (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988).

Haykin, M. A. G. The Spirit of God. The Exegesis of 1 & 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1994).

Herzog, R. Die Bibelepik der lateinischen Spätantike. Formgeschichte einer erbaulichen Gattung, Bd. 1 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1975).

Humphries, M. Communities of the Blessed. Social Environment and Change in Northern Italy, AD 200–400, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999).

Hunter, D. ‘Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian’, Theological Studies 48 (1987).Google Scholar

Jones, A. H. M. The Later Roman Empire, 284–602, 3 vols + maps (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964).

Klein, R. Constantius II. und die christliche Kirche (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977).

Kopecek, T. A. A History of Neo-Arianism, Patristic Monographs Series 8 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic Foundation, 1979).Google Scholar

Kriegbaum, B. Kirche der Traditoren oder kirche der Martyrer?: die vorgeschichte des Donatismus (Innsbruck: Tyrolia, 1986).

Leyser, C. Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Lienhard, J. T. ‘The “Arian” Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered’, Theological Studies 48 (1987).Google Scholar

Lienhard, J. T. Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1999).

Lienhard, J. T. ‘Ousia and Hypostasis: The Cappadocian Settlement and the Theology of “One Hypostasis”’, in Davis, S., Kendall, D. SJ and O’Collins, G. SJ, eds, The Trinity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

Logan, A. H. B. ‘Marcellus of Ancyra and the Councils of 325: Antioch, Ancyra, and Nicaea’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 43 (1992).Google Scholar

Logan, A. H. B. ‘Marcellus of Ancyra, Defender of the Faith against Heretics — and Pagans’, Studia Patristica 37 (2001).Google Scholar

Mühlenberg, E. Apollinarius von Laodicea (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1969).

MacMullen, R. Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).

Markus, R. A. ‘Christianity and Dissent in Roman Africa: changing perspectives in recent work’, Studies in Church History 9 (1972).Google Scholar

Markus, R. A. Christianity in the Roman world (London: Thames and Hudson, 1974).

Markus, R. A. From Augustine to Gregory the Great (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).

Markus, R. A. The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Markus, R. A. ‘Donatus, Donatism’, in Fitzgerald, A., ed., Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).Google Scholar

Marrou, H.-I. Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique (Paris: E de Boccard, 1938; with Retractatio, 1946).Google Scholar

Merdinger, J. E. Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997).

Momigliano, A. ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963).

Nuvolone, F. G. and Solignac, A., ‘Pelage et Pelagianisme’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, histoire et doctrine XII. 2 (1987).Google Scholar

O’Keefe, J. ‘Impassible Suffering? Divine Passion and Fifth-Century Christology’, Theological Studies 58 (1997).Google Scholar

Rébillard, E. and Sotinel, C., eds, L’Évêque dans la cité du IVe au Ve siècle, (Rome: École française de Rome, 1998).

Rees, B. R. Pelagius: a Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1988).

Rees, B. R. The Letters of Pelagius and His Followers (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1991).

Ritter, A. M. Das Konzil von Konstantinopel und sein Symbol. Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des 2. Ökumenischen Konzils (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1965).

Rousseau, P. Ascetics, Authority and the Church (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978).

Salzman, Michele Renee, On Roman Time. The Codex-Calender of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 17 (Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford: University of California Press, 1990).

Sellers, R. V. Two Ancient Christologies (London and New York: SPCK, 1940).

Sellers, R. V. The Council of Chalcedon (London: SPCK, 1953).

Sieben, H. J. SJ, Das Konzilsidee der alten Kirche, Konziliengeschichte, Reihe B: Untersuchungen1 (Paderborn and Zurich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1979).

Simonetti, M. Studi sull’ Arianesimo, Verba Seniorum n.s. 5 (Rome: Editrice Studium, 1965).Google Scholar

Simonetti, M. La Crisi ariana nel IV secolo, Studia Ephemeridis «Augustinianum» 11 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum «Augustinianum», 1975).

Stewart OSB, C. ‘Working the Earth of the Heart’: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts and Language to AD 431 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).

Tetz, M. ‘Ein enzyklisches Schreiben der Synode von Alexandrien (362)’, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 79 (1988).Google Scholar

Trombley, F. R. Hellenic Religion and Christianization c.370–529, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1993, 1995).

Vaggione, R. P. Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution, Oxford Early Christian Studies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).

Vinzent, M. Asterius von Kappadokien: Die Theologische Fragmente. Einleitung, Kritischer Text, Ubersetzung und Kommentar (Leiden: Brill, 1993).

Wickham, L. R. ‘The Syntagmation of Aetius the Anomean’, Journal of Theological Studies n.s.19 (1968).Google Scholar

Wickham, L. R. ‘Pelagianism in the East’, in Williams, Rowan, ed., The Making of Orthodoxy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar

Williams, R. Arius. Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1987; 2nd edn, revised with appendix, London: SCM, 2001).

Young, F. M. ‘The God of the Greeks and the Nature of Religious Language’, in Schoedel, W. R. and Wilken, R., eds, Early Christian Literature and the Greek Intellectual Tradition: Festschrift for R. M. Grant, Théologie Historique 53 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980).Google Scholar

Young, F. M. From Nicaea to Chalcedon (London: SCM, 1983).

Young, F. M. ‘The Rhetorical Schools and Their Influence on Patristic Exegesis’, in Williams, R., ed., The Making of Orthodoxy. Essays in honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).Google Scholar

Young, F. M. ‘Exegetical Method and Scriptural Proof: the Bible in Doctrinal Debate’, Studia Patristica 24 (1989).Google Scholar

Young, F. M. ‘Paideia and the Myth of Static Dogma’, in Coakley, S. and Pailin, D., eds, The Making and Remaking of Christian Doctrine: Essays in Honour of Maurice Wiles (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar

Young, F. M. ‘The Fourth-century Reaction against Allegory’, Studia Patristica 30 (1997).Google Scholar

Book contents

37 - Social and historical setting

Summary

Keywords

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive