Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire

The Development of Christian Discourse

Averil Cameron

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English

University of California Press
02 December 1994

The Early Church

Series: Sather Classical Lectures

Many reasons can be given for the rise of Christianity in late antiquity and its flourishing in the medieval world. In asking how Christianity succeeded in becoming the dominant ideology in the unpromising circumstances of the Roman Empire, Averil Cameron turns to the development of Christian discourse over the first to sixth centuries A.D., investigating the discourse's essential characteristics, its effects on existing forms of communication, and its eventual preeminence. Scholars of late antiquity and general readers interested in this crucial historical period will be intrigued by her exploration of these influential changes in modes of communication.

The emphasis that Christians placed on language-writing, talking, and preaching-made possible the formation of a powerful and indeed a totalizing discourse, argues the author. Christian discourse was sufficiently flexible to be used as a public and political instrument, yet at the same time to be used to express private feelings and emotion. Embracing the two opposing poles of logic and mystery, it contributed powerfully to the gradual acceptance of Christianity and the faith's transformation from the enthusiasm of a small sect to an institutionalized world religion.

By: Averil Cameron
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 55
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 408g
ISBN: 9780520089235
ISBN 10: 0520089235
Series: Sather Classical Lectures
Pages: 275
Publication Date: 02 December 1994
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Averil Cameron is Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at the University of London, King's College. Her many publications include Images of Women in Antiquity, edited with Amelie Kuhrt (1983), Procopius and the Sixth Century (California, 1985), and History as Text (1989).

Reviews for Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse

Cameron's lectures. . . are the work of a master hand, and deal with a question to which an apparently increasing number of ancient historians wish to turn, namely the mysterious problem of the spread of Christianity in a society that showed little sign of being sympathetic. --Henry Chadwick, Times Literary Supplement