Makten och det heliga: hur den romerska världen blev kristen

by Peter Brown

Peter Brown, perhaps the greatest living authority on Mediterranean civilization in late antiquity, traces the growing power of Christian bishops as they wrested influence from philosophers, who had traditionally advised the rulers of Graeco-Roman society.  In the new “Christian empire,” the ancient bonds of citizen to citizen and of each city to its benefactors were replaced by a common Christianity and common loyalty to a distant, Christian autocrat.  This transformation of the Roman empire from an ancient to a medieval society, he argues, is among the most far-reaching consequences of the rise of Christianity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ancient History, Religion, Christianity, Theology, Medieval History

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Peter Robert Lamont Brown FBA is an Irish historian. He is the Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. Brown is credited with having brought coherence to the field of Late Antiquity, and is often regarded as the inventor of said field. His work has concerned, in particular, the religious culture of the later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe, and the relation between religion and society.

Reviews

[Benjamin Phillips]

A helpful and engaging set of lectures on the relationship between eloquence (and paideia more broadly) and statecraft in Late Antiquity, with a fascinating concluding chapter on how Bishops both assumed and transformed the role of the local elite and that of the philosopher, resulting in the move “toward a Christian empire” with a very distinct understanding of the political hierarchy.

Focused on the East, but with regular cameos from Augustine and Ambrose.

[Andrew]

Brilliant. Brown traces the capture of speech and power from elites of the old religion by leaders of the new Christian religion, and the concomitant loss of a representation of society bound by a shared paideia of cultivation and restraint, supplanted by a new representation of a society bound by the Christian emperor's divine right of absolute power. Much more going on here, but that's a glimpse.

[Neal Spadafora]

Another phenomenal work from Brown, which he perfectly summarizes in the introduction:

"It attempts to describe the expectations with which upper-class subjects approached the emperor and his representatives, to ward off the cruelty and fiscal rigor that characterized the government of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. It will not describe all the mechanisms by which such approaches were made, nor all the strategies employed: rather, it will concentrate on the cultural and religious elements that were thought to have played a role in making the imperial power, for all its domineering majesty, amenable to persuasion."

It was this art of persuasion, learned through the paideia acquired through elite educations that later enabled Christian bishops to intercede into political matters on behalf of Christian congregations

[Phil Atteberry]

First, my rating means nothing. I am not qualified to judge this book. I read it because 1) I know nothing about late antiquity and thought I would like to learn something and 2) it's short. As it turns out, this is not the book I should have read. It assumes a general knowledge of the historical period that I do not have. Even so, I soldiered on to the end and actually did learn some things. I learned a little bit about the paucity and problematic nature of ancient sources. I also learned that broad phrases like "the Rise of Christianity in the Eastern Empire" refer to complex social and political developments that we don't fully understand. All in all, I'm a little smarter for having read this book--but not much.

[J. Alfred]

Christianity as the first populism? Bishops behaving like mob bosses and monks like the thug arm of the church? This is kind of uncomfortable.
A thought provoking read about how the ancient and sort of ceremonial role of the philosopher in his political role as the one who is allowed to speak truths to power got taken over by the 'lovers of the poor,' which in turn makes 'the poor' a political interest group that can enforce their displeasure by rioting. The bishop then takes an almost explicitly Althussarian role as Ideological State Apparatuses, ie, guys who get to retain their power because they keep the poor quiet without bloodshed.

[Carlos Wang]

Peter Brown 是研究晚期羅馬帝國必須認識的權威，他的Late Antiquity(古代晚期)學說自成一個流派，影響深遠。我之前花了重本買了《The World of Late Antiquity》，可是一直沒看(遮臉)，聽說簡體出版社已經開始著手翻譯了，真好。XD

本書是作者將他於一些講座上探討的主題精華文字化，篇幅不長。

重點在於講述晚期羅馬帝國從社面層面上轉向基督教中心的變化。眾所周知，這個龐大帝國以最簡單的官僚體系進行統治，而它是如何做到的呢？其實就是依賴地方菁英的配合。而帝國又是依賴從文化上的統一來維繫這階層，它們有共通的語言(希臘、拉丁語跟修辭學)，閱讀共通的書籍(希臘經典)，相同的教養與道德規範；他們佔據著社會的優勢地位，直通宮廷，反映民意(我懷疑這是代議制的濫觴)，但也承擔各種義務，例如協助收稅，出資公共建設等。

隨著帝國日益動盪，而這些菁英也腐化墮落，朝氣蓬勃的基督教的興起，很快就取這些人而代之。教士成為新的階級，但除了閱讀的文本從希臘經典變成聖經教義，道德準則變成宗教規範，還有其對窮人關懷引起的民粹本質外，跟過去的傳統城市仕紳幾乎扮演了相同角色。但也由於這個宗教掌握住了這個最關鍵的權力，以致於歐洲的基督化便不可避免了。

[sam tannehill]

Everyone should read as much Peter Brown as he or she can find and stand to. His books are all perfect. Imagine wanting to know about a niche corner of society in the 5th and 6th centuries... He's probably explained it in one of his books, which all focus on interesting cultural tensions.

[Sophia]

read for class. It's not my favorite work by him, but as usual it's written well and enjoyable to read through.

[Ben Gough-Palmer]

Informative and interesting, but at times advanced vocabulary made things inaccessible and ambiguous.

[Jackson Paladin]

I definitely need to reread this to understand fully. Peter Brown certainly did not hold back in this one. I found it immensely more challenging than the Rise of Western Christendom, which was not an 'easy' read either. Still, the fact that it is worth reading again says something...

[Falk]

I enjoyed Brown’s dense prose, and this is both engagingly written as well as packed with interesting information and references. The main focus of this book is on the continuation of paideia among the aristocratic elite, and the transference of the practice of parrhésia from the philosophers to the bishops as the Roman Empire became Christianized – the book deals mainly with the eastern provinces however. While Brown makes repeated references and comparisons with the decorum found in connection with the autocracy of 17th century France, there’s only little mention of, or comparisons made, with the paideia of the early Greek city states, or the Graeco-Roman world in general, in the centuries leading up to the period of late antiquity discussed in this book – except, indirectly, when briefly discussing (the image of) earlier philosophers in the subchapter about parrhésia. Brown also mentions only as an aside that parrhésia was never simply the exclusive domain of philosophers, without getting much further into that. Also, the way Brown presents it, you could easily get the impression that the Christian bishops were the first to ever give any attention to the existence of the noncitizen, and, as well, that this had never been used as a political argument before. However, he does show how increased immigration and urbanization lead to an upsurge of the noncitizen class in the East Roman cities, making it a more pressing social issue, along with that of underemployment, and how the bishops became "Controllers of the Crowds" (p. 103) and developed this argument (on behalf of the masses of noncitizens and abject poor; noncitizens were not necessarily poor) into a stance of moral authority, as representatives of the general populace, because "before the emperor, as before God, all subjects were poor" (p. 154).– Make no mistake about it; perhaps complementing the title of his book, Brown aims to persuade, and he generally manages well with that within the narrow focus of this study – yet, just because of its narrowness, it appears to some degree incomplete. Still, within its own limit, this is a noteworthy and compelling analysis.




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[Lyn Kidson]

This is a well written book that takes you into the life and thought of the Christianised Roman empire.For anyone thinking about the relationship between the great theological debates eg Arianism) and the emperor this is a must. Peter Brown takes what could be quite dry material and makes it a fascinating read.

[Chris]

Pretty good, but it applies to a pretty specific subject. Its treatment of that subject, however, is very nuanced. (Hist 492- Univ Sophomore)