Christianity
Bookmark this page

•        No - can’t really explain the changes to AC 400-600.

•        A change in the language of power only – C changed public face of AC and its structure of power – it therefore poss prolonged its survival (e.g. many temples converted into churches).

•        Public display and organisation shifted into a different idiom – continuity of urban élite culture, even of system of social advancement via scholarly rhetoric, but C incorporated – lasting changes (every city still has a bishop)

1.        Churches = impressive and expensive community buildings under a different name – these large new structures replaced classical architecture (e.g. S. Sophia Maggiore, C5 Rome). Church patronage (seen in tile inscriptions recording donations etc.) = new expression of community status.

2. Increasing role of bishops and clergy in city admin in lieu of curial class. Dev of set of dioceses
3. Legacies now made to churches instead  of public projects
4. Records of funerary inscriptions / miracles / local saints' lives take place of earlier classical texts. Municipal pride still a useful concept.

•        C fitted well with AC (not aspic C2 view, but a creative interpretation of what AC was all about – e.g. C charity in cities funded production / employment).

Having bishop performing secular functions was crucial to preservation of admin value of cities.Unity of diocese kept

city and territory unity for longest.

•        Importance of saints’ cults – pilgrimages / travelling clerics.

•        Barnish – C also imposed network of monasteries / parishes on countryside. Shrines = meeting points for town and country people.

[ Contrast with Islam for Syrians: New cityscape with mosques. New attitude to public administration. Islamic law differentiated differently between public and private property (no aesthetic considerations, but privacy crucial). Kennedy argues for longer-term socio-economic changes. Coming of Islam = just one aspect of C6-10 transformation.]

Other Notes in this Category

1. Christianity
2. Decline?
3. Economy
4. Ideological retreat into private sphere?
5. Political Instabilities

Didn't find this useful?

• Visit Coursework.Info for over 14,000 GCSE, A-Level and University Essays