medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have not attempted to keep up on this topic, so others may have more recent literature. But based on the following (unfortunately I don't have full citations, but all the following are from the mid-1980s):
Wayne Meeks, _The First Urban Christians_
John Gager, _Kingdom and Community_
Richard L. Rohrbaugh, "Methodological Considerations inthe Debate over the Social Class Status of Early Christians," _Journal of the American Academy of Religion_, 52 (1984), 519-46
Stephen Benko and ______O'Rourke, _Catacombs and Colossem_, esp. ch. 5, by Clarence L. Lee, "Social Unrest and Primitive Christianity"
plus Peter Brown's _Making of Late Antiquity_, _World of Late Antiquity_ etc.
my impression was that, yes, the "slave religion" explanation has long since (thankfully) been retired. The above authors tend to emphasize a mixture, but do point out that among those attracted to Christianity were relatively wealthy people who lacked social status, i.e., those who had come into the cities from the provinces and made money in trade or business but lacked social standing because they were not from either the provincial gentry or the urban patriciate. Brown argues that by the mid-3rd century the generalized crisis in the gentry and urban patriciate religiously and otherwise, permitted members of these higher social classes take a new (more favorable) look at this new religion (e.g., Cyprian of Carthage), which offered direct, charismatic access to the Divine in a way that once was not sought after but which seems to have become more popular in the 3rd century (he cites Plotinus in Porphyry's biography as an illustration of this phenomenon outside Christian circles, to indicate that it was something in the air, not merely a Christian phenomenon. In the "old days" this sort of personal (visions, dreams) contact had not been sought after; the public, formal, ceremonial cult was perfectly adequate for elites whose world followed age-old traditional patterns; he argues that these patterns were called into question in the later 2nd and early-mid 3rd centuries. Christian bishops, who were both charismatic "God-bearers" (Ignatius of Antioch: theophorus) and yet also juridical and liturgical leaders, Brown argues, met this perceived need for direct access to the divine.
But, as I said, I have not monitored the last 15 years of publications on these topics. Perhaps someone else can bring things up to date.
Dennis Martin
>>> [log in to unmask] 05/27/02 09:29AM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear All-
I am venturing forth to ask a question regarding the current view of the
spread of christianity in the third century. I know the older view is
that it was a "slave" religion and that it appealed to the poor,
disenfranchised, and artisnal classes in the Roman Empire, but I seem to
think that more recent views have rejected this in favor of understanding
the importance of more well-to-do people, particularly women. Here I
am in part thinking of P. Brown's second chapter in his *cult of the
saints* where he understands the control of relics within the context of
what I believe he calls "competing patronage systems".
Could anyone with more familiarity with the third and fourth century shed
some light?
Many thanks
Cecilia Gaposchkin
Dartmouth College
History
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