Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté. Image fixe : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Jones, Christopher Prestige (1940-....)
Titre(s) : Between Pagan and Christian [Texte imprimé] / Christopher P. Jones
Publication : Cambridge (Mass.) : Harvard University Press, 2014
Description matérielle : xv, 207 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Comprend : The perception of paganism ; Constantine ; After Constantine: indifference and
intolerance ; God and other divinities ; Idolatry ; Sacrifice, blood, and prayer
; Debate ; Conversion ; The West ; The East ; Conclusion. The persistence of paganism
; Appendix. Was Macrobius a Christian?
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references and index
For the early Christians, "pagan" referred to a multitude of unbelievers: Greek and
Roman devotees of the Olympian gods, and "barbarians" such as Arabs and Germans with
their own array of deities. But while these groups were clearly outsiders or idolaters,
who and what was pagan depended on the outlook of the observer, as Christopher Jones
shows in this fresh and penetrating analysis. Treating paganism as a historical construct
rather than a fixed entity, Between Pagan and Christian uncovers the ideas, rituals,
and beliefs that Christians and pagans shared in Late Antiquity. While the emperor
Constantine's conversion in 312 was a momentous event in the history of Christianity,
the new religion had been gradually forming in the Roman Empire for centuries, as
it moved away from its Jewish origins and adapted to the dominant pagan culture. Early
Christians drew on pagan practices and claimed important pagans as their harbingers--asserting
that Plato, Virgil, and others had glimpsed Christian truths. At the same time, Greeks
and Romans had encountered in Judaism observances and beliefs shared by Christians
such as the Sabbath and the idea of a single, creator God. Polytheism was the most
obvious feature separating paganism and Christianity, but pagans could be monotheists,
and Christians could be accused of polytheism and branded as pagans. In the diverse
religious communities of the Roman Empire, as Jones makes clear, concepts of divinity,
conversion, sacrifice, and prayer were much more fluid than traditional accounts of
early Christianity have led us to believe
Sujet(s) : Paganisme -- Histoire
Christianisme -- Relations
Église -- Doctrines -- 30-600 (Église primitive)
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780674725201. - ISBN 0674725204 (rel.)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb43868577d
Notice n° :
FRBNF43868577
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
