Title: Augustine and Catholic Christianization : the Catholicization of Roman Africa, 391-408 /
Authors: Six-Means, Horace E., 1967-
Publisher: Peter Lang,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Augustine,; Augustine, Sermons History and criticism.; Catholic Church Africa (Roman province); Christianity and culture Rome.; Christianity and culture History; Church history; Church history; Africa (Roman province) Church history.
Abstract: A religious reformation occurred in the Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries which scholars often call Christianization. Examining evidence relevant to Roman Africa of this period, this book sharpens understanding of this religious revolution. Focusing on the activities of Augustine and his colleagues from Augustine's ordination as a priest in 391, to the fall of the Emperor Honorius master of soldiers, Stilicho, in 408, it proposes Catholicization as a term to more precisely characterize the process of change observed. Augustine and Catholic Christianization argues that at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century Augustine emerged as the key manager in the campaign to Catholicize Roman Africa by virtue of a comprehensive strategy to persuade or suppress rivals, which notably included Donatists, Arians, Manichees, and various kinds of polytheism. Select sermons from 403 and 404 reveal that Augustine's rhetoric was multivalent.
Contents: Introduction -- Self-understanding -- Social order -- Rhetoric -- Catholicization and the preaching tours of Augustine : August 403-June 404 -- The Edict of Unity and its aftermath -- Conclusion.