Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. By Peter Brown

Peter Brown synthesises the rise of Christianity, especially during the years from 300 A.D. to 450 A.D., a crucial time for the expansion and solidification of a once outlawed, persecuted, and perjured faith.  Brown describes the expectations of upper-class Romans in the 4^th and 5^th centuries, as the empire imposed not only fiscal rigour and enhanced taxation; but endeavoured to ward off the cruelty of pagan society, attempting to ameliorate the awful conditions of most of its subjects, the corruption of its military and legal system; and the despotic elements which resulted in a society of enslavement and mass poverty.  Brown rightly focuses on the cultural and religious elements which changed the empire from pantheon paganism to Christianity and civilisation. 

The Roman empire had a culture of ‘paideia’, which infused everything from schooling to leadership. ‘Paideia’ was the Romano-Greek concept of social behaviour and societal expectation, including classical learning, what to study, how to speak, how to carry oneself in public, career choices based on social standing, what was deemed artful and in good taste, and what was granted as acceptable or unacceptable behaviour.  As Brown so elegantly writes, Christianity between the artless form of gospel wisdom and the ‘Paideia’, merged the existing Romano-Greek culture into that of the ‘sublime philosophy’ of the Patristic Church.  Christianity originally spread in the civilised urban centres, and did especially well amongst not only the poor, but the elite, the merchants, and the governing classes.  By 300 A.D. the followers of Christ would have been no less than 10-15% of the total empire’s population.  But with elite monies and support, that would greatly expand, so that by the 5^th century, Christianity could claim half the population as laity and followers of the Cross. 

Brown relates this tacit and at times covert realignment within Roman society, from paganism to the Church.  The emotional sermons of John Chrysostom on caring for the poor and ridding the wealthy of excess consumption and corruption, were emblematic of a philosophy of support, welfare, care and nurture of all people, regardless of standing, skin colour or sin.  The Bishops throughout the empire, many from wealthy families, redirected secular wealth to abbeys, churches, hospitals, hospices, and poor relief.  When Constantine officially declared Christianity to be the religion of the Roman state in 315 A.D., the benefits of being inside the new merger of Christ-worship and ‘paideia’, attracted the powerful, the ambitious, and the governing elites.  Constantine directed large sums of state largesse into the Churches and their attendant organisations as outreach centres to the dispossessed, the poor, and the marginalised.  Much power was accreted in this process by Bishops and wealthy patrons who began to play important and politically meaningful roles in the new alignment. 

In 395 A.D. a pagan-Western usurper who worshipped a pantheon of gods, was soundly destroyed in battle by Theodosius I near Alexandria, a battle of similar importance to both the empire and to Christianity as Constantine’s victory at the Milvian bridge near Rome in 312 A.D.  This confirmed to many the inexorable rise of the Christian faith and the inevitable demise of the ancient pagan gods and their temples.  New energy poured into Christian education and writing.  Philosophical discourse including naturalism, physics and even mathematics were merged into Christian theological debates and metaphysics.  Miracles, both public and private, enacted by believing Christians and holy men, continued to attract converts and discussion.  A discernible moral and pragmatic energy was offered by Christians and their Church which in the turmoil of the 4^th and 5^th centuries, provided succour and aid to many.  All men were equal before God, regardless of wealth and status, and all were bowed, humbled and judged.  Such a radical belief had never before been offered.

Post Constantine, Christian authors were very busy suffusing Christian doctrines with pagan-Greek ideals from Plato, Aristotle, and others.  Histories of the Church were written, following the path set by Eusebius.  Monks and monasteries proliferated, not always in harmony with the still strong paganism found throughout the empire.  During the 4^th and 5^th centuries Christianity and paganism lived sided by side, with many Christians still worshipping pagan idols.  As Brown relates with many examples of high-profile Christians, Bishops and civic leaders, polytheism was still abundant and many Church leaders were once polytheists despite the rather official and triumphal nature of Christianity by the 5^th century.

The modern expectation is that Christianity ‘just happened’ as an inevitable ‘dialectical phase’, or even an imposition by force or power.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Christianity before 315 A.D. was growing, but was politically and socially marginalised, at times savagely attacked and persecuted and at other times, viewed with disdain and incomprehension by pagan polytheists.  Its expansion to include 80% of the empire’s population by the end of the 5^th century is due to the conversion by the political and wealthy elite of the empire in key urban areas, the conversion of Constantine and restatement of primacy by Theodosius I, the flow of investment and wealth often through Bishops and the Churches to the poor; the creation of colossal buildings and parade grounds to showcase the religion; and in the general appeal to the poor, the sick, the dispossessed and powerless, through social healing, relief and spiritual-psychic revelations and improvements, including simplicity of belief system and the reduction of pagan idols and theogonies.  The expansion of Christianity from a small group of maybe 30 people in 33 A.D. to some 80 million by the end of the 4^th century is one of the most remarkable miracles of all.