The Making of a Christian Aristocracy

Social and Religiuous Changes in the Western Roman Empire

What did it take to cause the Roman aristocracy to turn to Christianity, changing centuries-old beliefs and religious traditions? Michele Salzman takes a fresh approach to this much-debated question. Focusing on a sampling of individual aristocratic men and women as well as on writings and archeolog...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Author:Michele Renee Salzman
Published: Harvard University Press, London, W. Heinemann-Cambridge (Mass.), 2002
Language:English
Total Pages:XIV, 354
ISBN:978-0674016033
Format:Book
Topic:- Biography > Background > Roman World > Rome/Roman Empire > social classes
- Biography > Background > Roman World > Rome/Roman Empire > Society
- Biography > Relations and Sources > Sources/General studies > [Noms propres / Personnages cités ou évoqués]
Status:Active
Description
Summary:What did it take to cause the Roman aristocracy to turn to Christianity, changing centuries-old beliefs and religious traditions? Michele Salzman takes a fresh approach to this much-debated question. Focusing on a sampling of individual aristocratic men and women as well as on writings and archeological evidence, she brings new understanding to the process by which pagan aristocrats became Christian, and Christianity became aristocratic. Roman aristocrats would seem to be unlikely candidates for conversion to Christianity. Pagan and civic traditions were deeply entrenched among the educated and politically well-connected. Indeed, men who held state offices often were also esteemed priests in the pagan state cults: these priesthoods were traditionally sought as a way to reinforce one's social position. Moreover, a religion whose texts taught love for one's neighbor and humility, with strictures on wealth and notions of equality, would not have obvious appeal for those at the top of a hierarchical society. Yet somehow in the course of the fourth and early fifth centuries Christianity and the Roman aristocracy met and merged.

Similar Items