Christianization in the Fourth Century
The Example of Roman Women
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4737340 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anne Yarbrough (Catawba College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1976 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 149-165 |
| Publication date | 1976-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Church History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3163714 |
| OpenAlex | W2109586831 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 15 |
At the beginning of the fourth century the Roman aristocracy was, for the most part, pagan in its religious attitude. By the end of that century the aristocracy had undergone what Peter Brown has described as a "sea change": its pagan values had become redefined within the context of Christianity. This "drift into respectable Christianity" was the result of the process of socialization in the households of the Roman senatorial class over several generations. Brown suggests that the fourth-century Christianization of the aristocracy was the achievement of those upper-class Roman women who, by continuing to practice their Christian religion in the households of their pagan husbands, established the syncretistic milieu which would influence the religious attitudes of the next generation. But the apparent calm of Brown's anonymous culture-bearers is disturbed by a small group of women whose religious extremism delineates them sharply from their peers. Rejecting wholly the society into which they were born, they fled the cloying Roman atmosphere for the harsh air of the desert. The "respectable Christianity" that Rome was adopting offered them no satisfaction
Ancient history · Archaeology · Aristocracy (class · Christianity · Christianization · Context (archaeology · Political science · Politics · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies
Augustine of Hippo
Le sénateur Volusien et la conversion d'une famille de l'aristocratie romaine au Bas-Empire
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus and the Senatorial Aristocracy of the West
Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy
Deacons, Deaconesses and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period
The Decline of the Ancient World
Roman Women
Social Mobility in the Later Roman Empire
The age of Roman girls at marriage
Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire
Roman Women, Their History and Habits
Contraception in the Roman Empire
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 2000 - 2013 (14) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |