>Ramsay Macmullen "Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries"
>(1997) p3 makes a telling point about the dominance of Christian sources.
>
>"... yet anyone familiar with the sources post-400, anyone standing before
>the hundred imposing volumes of the fifth to seventh centuries that are
>Christian while holding in his hand only the one unimposing volume of
>Zosimus, can measure their disproportion."
yes, but what do we make of such a phenomenon?
for a start, i'd like to emphasize that these sources are not merely xn, but
ecclesiastical. the (clerical) followers of the false xt of bourges (594),
adalbert (740s) and thiota of mainz (847) do not leave behind any
documentation. it's not just xn vs pagan, it's xn vs other (heretical) forms
of xnty which, as modern studies of non-literate societies tell us, proliferate
when xn texts and xn discourse enter the marketplace of religious ideas.
rlandes
Richard Landes
Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University Department of History
704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite 205 226 Bay State Road
Boston MA 02215 Boston MA 02215
617-358-0226 of 358-0225 fax 617-353-2558 of 353-2556 fax
http://www.mille.org [log in to unmask]
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