The Transitions of Roman Culture (Romanitas) As It Interacted with Christian Culture (Christianitas) And Barbarian Cultures (Germanitas)
Christianity in late antiquity runs from the Christian Roman Empire when Christianity rose under the Emperor Constantine (c. 313) up to the end of the Western Roman Empire (c. 476). The sub-Roman period transition was gradual and occurred at varying times in different places. Therefore, the exact time the period ended is varied. The late ancient Christianity lasted up to the end of the 6th century. On the other hand, Justinian conquests of the Byzantine Empire… Continue Reading...
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The tension John’s community experienced in the Greco-Roman culture into which they were ejected was rooted in the ideas about the gods that that culture harbored. The Greco-Roman culture was polytheistic. The Christian culture was monotheistic. The tension stemmed from the fact, too, that the Greeks and Romans were rational and logical—yet here were the Christians describing miracles that could not be explained rationally.
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The tension facing the community when John I, II and III were written was that the Christians were becoming more visible and known and despised by the popular culture. They rejected the… Continue Reading...
Roman culture offered: it was something distinct, new, unique and outside the main.[footnoteRef:4] This in its own right had a special allure, as journeying to the land of the dead was symbolic in itself of the spiritual pilgrimage the Christian believed himself to be on. It also encapsulated the paradoxical mystery of the faith—that among the dead there could be found the grace of life. [2: Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (University of Chicago Press, 1981), 6] [3: Ibid 4.] [4:… Continue Reading...
