Through the eye of a needle : wealth, the fall of Rome, and the making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD / Peter Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Peter, 1935-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Church history.

Church history--Primitive and early church.

Wealth--Religious aspects--Christianity--History.

Wealth.

Wealth--Religious aspects--Christianity.

History.

Rome--History--Empire, 284-476.

Rome.

Rome (Empire).

Physical Description:

xxx, 759 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2012]

Contents:

Part I Wealth, Christianity, and Giving at the End of an Ancient World 1

Chapter 1 Aurea aetas

Wealth in an Age of Gold 3

Chapter 2 Mediocritas

The Social Profile of the Latin Church, 312-CA. 370 31

Chapter 3 Amor civicus Love of the city

Wealth and its Uses in an Ancient World 53

Chapter 4 "Treasure in Heaven"

Wealth in the Christian Church 72

Part II An Age of Affluence 91

Chapter 5 Symmachus

Being Noble in Fourth-Century Rome 93

Chapter 6 Avidus civicae gratiae Greedy for the good favor of the city

Symmachus and the People of Rome 110

Chapter 7 Ambrose and His People 120

Chapter 8 "Avarice, the Root of All Evil"

Ambrose and Northern Italy 135

Chapter 9 Augustine Spes saeculi

Careerism, Patronage and Religious Bonding, 354-384 148

Chapter 10 From Milan to Hippo

Augustine and the Making of a Religious Community, 384-396 161

Chapter 11 "The Life in Common of a Kind of Divine and Heavenly Republic" Augustine on Public and Private in a Monastic Community 173

Chapter 12 Ista vero saecularia Those things, indeed, of the world

Ausonius, Villas, and the Language of Wealth 185

Chapter 13 Ex opulentissimo divite From being rich as rich can be

Paulinus of Nola and the Renunciation of Wealth, 389-395 208

Chapter 14 Commercium spiritale The spiritual Exchange

Paulinus of Nola and the Poetry of Wealth, 395-408 224

Chapter 15 Propter magnificentiam urbis Romae By reason of the magnificence of the city of Rome

The Roman Rich and their Clergy, from Constantine to Damasus, 312-384 241

Chapter 16 "To Sing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land"

Jerome in Rome, 381-385 259

Chapter 17 Between Rome and Jerusalem

Women, Patronage, and Learning, 385-412 273

Part III An Age of Crisis 289

Chapter 18 "The Eye of a Needle" and "The Treasure of the Soul"

Renunciation, Nobility, and the Sack of Rome, 405-413 291

Chapter 19 Tolle divitem Take away the rich

The Pelagian Criticism of Wealth 308

Chapter 20 Augustine's Africa

People and Church 321

Chapter 21 "Dialogues with the Crowd"

The Rich, the People, and the City in the Sermons of Augustine 339

Chapter 22 Dimitte nobis debita nostra Forgive us our sins

Augustine, Wealth, and Pelagianism, 411-417 359

Chapter 23 "Out of Africa" Wealth, Power, and the Churches, 415-430 369

Chapter 24 "Still at That Time a More Affluent Empire"

The Crisis of the West in the Fifth Century 385

Part IV Aftermaths 409

Chapter 25 Among the Saints

Marseilles, Arles, and Lérins, 400-440 411

Chapter 26 Romana respublica vel iam mortua With the empire now dead and gone

Salvian and his Gaul, 420-450 433

Chapter 27 Ob Italiae securitatem For the security of Italy

Rome and Italy, CA. 430-CA. 530 454

Part V Toward Another World 479

Chapter 28 Patrimonia pauperum Patrimonies of the poor

Wealth and Conflict in the Churches of the Sixth Century 481

Chapter 29 Servator fidei, patriaeque semper amator Guardian of the Faith, and always lover of [his] homeland

Wealth and Piety in the Sixth Century 503.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691152905

069115290X

OCLC:

761383853