The Formation of Christendom
1st Edition
Published on 3. November 2021
568 pages
978-0-691-22077-2 (ISBN)
Description
A groundbreaking history of how the Christian "West" emerged from the ancient Mediterranean world
In this acclaimed history of Early Christendom, Judith Herrin shows how-from the sack of Rome in 410 to the coronation of Charlemagne in 800-the Christian "West" grew out of an ancient Mediterranean world divided between the Roman west, the Byzantine east, and the Muslim south. Demonstrating that religion was the period's defining force, she reveals how the clash over graven images, banned by Islam, both provoked iconoclasm in Constantinople and generated a distinct western commitment to Christian pictorial narrative. In a new preface, Herrin discusses the book's origins, reception, and influence.
In this acclaimed history of Early Christendom, Judith Herrin shows how-from the sack of Rome in 410 to the coronation of Charlemagne in 800-the Christian "West" grew out of an ancient Mediterranean world divided between the Roman west, the Byzantine east, and the Muslim south. Demonstrating that religion was the period's defining force, she reveals how the clash over graven images, banned by Islam, both provoked iconoclasm in Constantinople and generated a distinct western commitment to Christian pictorial narrative. In a new preface, Herrin discusses the book's origins, reception, and influence.
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Judith Herrin
The Formation of Christendom
Book
10/2021
Princeton University Press
€24.00
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Person
Judith Herrin is professor emeritus in the Department of Classics at King's College London. Her books include Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe; Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire; Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium; Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire; and Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium (all Princeton). She lives in Oxford, England.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Preface to the Princeton Classics Edition
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART I. LATE ANTIQUITY
- 1. Romans and Non-Romans
- 2. Christian Influence in Late Antique Culture
- 3. The Churches in the Sixth Century: The Council of 553
- PART II. FROM CHRISTIAN SCHISM TO DIVISION
- Introduction to Part II
- 4. The Achievement of Gregory the Great
- 5. Byzantium Confronted by Islam
- 6. The Visigothic Alternative
- 7. The Roots of Christian Disunity, 649-92
- Plates
- PART III. THE THREE HEIRS OF ROME
- Introduction to Part III
- 8. Eastern Iconoclasm: Islamic and Byzantine
- 9. Divergent Paths
- 10. The Carolingian Innovation
- 11. The Two Emperors of Christendom
- 12. Conclusion
- Afterword
- Abbreviations
- Index
- LIST OF FIGURES
- 1. Map of the World of Late Antiquity
- 2. Map of the Mediterranean East
- 3. Map of the Christian West
- 4. Comparative Chronology
