Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 / Frank R. Trombley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Trombley, Frank R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christianity and other religions--Greek.

Christianity and other religions.

Christianity and other religions--Roman.

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Church history--Primitive and early church.

Rome--Religion.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Religion.

Greece--Religion.

Greece.

Middle East--Religion.

Middle East.

Egypt--Religion.

Egypt.

Physical Description:

2 volumes ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Brill Academic Publishers, 2001.

Summary:

Christianity seeped into the social, political, and religious fabric of the Roman Empire at an incredible pace, and during the late fourth to early sixth centuries the effects of christianization upon both the city and the countryside were profound. Frank Trombley looks specifically at this process he calls "christianization" and at the "points of conjuncture between the old and new religions, wherein the ordinary people of the Greek cities and their semi-Greek hinterlands accepted radical changes in their religious allegiances at the behest of Christian bishops, their deacons and periodeutai, the monks, and ultimately of the Christian emperors" (preface). Trombley's view encompasses not the intellectual elite but the "ordinary folk" of religious life. He studies, for example the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery instituted by the Christian religion upon the Greek religious practices of the general populace. He also instructs us how official sanctions against pagan gods and the christianization of rite become the backdrop for better understanding conversion to Christianity. Trombley's firm grasp on a variety of complex disciplines reassures the reader throughout that his conclusions are informed by rigorous analysis.

Contents:

V. The Philoponoi of Alexandria and Hellenic Religion 1

1. The Social Background of Zachariah of Mytilene's Friends 2

2. Relations among the Pagan and Christian Professors and Students: Paralios of Aphrodisias 4

3. Some Conversions in Alexandria 15

4. Some Alexandrian Connections with Aphrodisias in the Reign of Zeno (c. 488-491) 20

5. The Philoponoi in Berytus and the Eradication of Magic 29

VI. Aphrodisias 52

1. Hellenic Religion in Society and Culture 52

2. Class Status and Christianization 58

3. Christian Aphrodisias 69

VII. Asia Minor 74

1. Hypatius of Rufinianae and the Christianization of Rural Bithynia c. 443-446 76

2. The Christianization of Phrygia c. 350-450 96

3. The Territorium of Hierapolis c. 400 in Light of the Aberkios Legend 114

4. The Territorium of Pessinus in Galatia Salutaris 118

5. Eastern Anatolia: Cappadocia and Isauria 120

VIII. Arabs and Aramaeans in the Syrian Countryside 134

1. Libanius on Polytheism in the Territorium of Antioch in 386 134

2. Monks and Christianization in Syria 143

3. Arab Polytheism in Light of the Safaitic Inscriptions 173

4. Symeon Stylites the Elder: A Semitic View 184

5. The Syrian Countryside, Christianization, and the World Beyond 200

IX. The Nile Valley from Canopus to Philae 205

1. Shenute of Atripe and the Cults of the Middle Nile Valley 207

2. The Closure of the Isis Temple at Canopus c. 487-89 219

3. The Cults of Philae in the Mid-Fifth Century 225

4. Christian Philae and the Synoikism of Cults 235

Appendix IV Sacrifice in Fourth-Century Oxyrhynchus 241

X. The Antiochene and the Apamene 247

1. The Antiochene: Djebel Sim`an 257

2. The Antiochene: Djebel Halaqah 263

3. The Antiochene: Djebel Barisha 268

4. The Antiochene: The Orontes Basin 274

5. The Antiochene: The North Slope of Djebel Riha (Djebel Zawiyeh) 279

6. The Apamene: Southern Djebel Riha 283

7. The Apamene: Tarutia Emporon and Its Environs 295

8. The Apamene: Central and Southern Djebel il-`Ala 301

Appendix V The "One God" Inscriptions 313

XI. The Bostrene, Djebel Hauran and the Ledja 317

1. The Bostrene 320

2. Djebel Hauran 339

3. The Ledja 358

Appendix VI The God of Aumos at Deir el-Leben 375

Appendix VII Temple Conversions and the Survival of Cult in the Early Sixth Century 377.

Notes:

Originally published: Leiden : E.J. Brill, 1993-94, in series: Religions in the Graeco-Roman world.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0391041215

OCLC:

47869287