Pagans and Christians

I think that few people have reviewed Pagans and Christians because it is such a huge, highly detailed book. Although he does pull his strands together in the last chapter, Fox has a problem pulling far enough back from the details of his scholarship to interpret them for the general reader. His ignoring the big picture makes this a difficult book for a general reader, and I'm certainly that. I think this density and confusion of styles makes this a four-star book rather than a five.
Having made that objection up front, I am simply overwhelmed with his scholarship and thrilled to have this one under my mental belt. Fox begins with the state of pagan practice in the second century, a time when the gods continued to manifest themselves as show more they had done since the days of Homer, a time when they spoke through the oracles, a time when their displeasure with inadequate worship translated itself into military defeats, disease, and natural catastrophes. Next, he quantifies the two levels of Christian practice, ordinary believers and perfectionists, as well as the growing tension between the cachet of the martyrs and the power of the church's administrative leaders. Finally, he examines the person of Constantine closely, who without persecuting the pagan majority, nevertheless set the stage for the triumph of Christianity through the demonstrable presence of God in his victories.
One little paragraph does nothing to convey the richness of detail which was so great that I could read no more than 20 or so pages a day. Now I'm off to see what Christian scholars make of this hefty work of scholarship. show less

Not quite what I was looking for: influences on Christianity: anything taken directly taken from paganism and Christianized, e.g., something detailed, such as how possibly Roman religious garb influenced Christian vestments. However, if I take it on its terms and am not too disappointed that it isn't what I hoped for, it's an amazing book: detailed history of both Christianity and paganism from the Gordians [3rd century] through Constantine [5th century]. I felt it was a bit similar to The Golden Bough, if not in structure, amount of detail on a similar subject--in the latter case ancient Celtic folkways and their influence on modern English [mostly rural] practice. Hidden away were what I was looking for here and there; also in the show more later chapters were Christian parallels with paganism. Paganism retained its vibrancy through the Age of Constantine and beyond. It took many, many years to disappear completely.

I enjoyed the discussion of the visions of The Shepherd of Hermas, which almost made it into the Christian canon of Scripture and how this book tied in with the pagan notions of oracles and visions. I regretted there was no discussion of the Council[s] at which books were admitted to or rejected from the eventual New Testament. I learned a lot about how the authority of the church was set up and also how Christian "overachievers" first set up monasticism. I enjoyed reading about Constantine's Good Friday sermon, which emphasized his Christian thinking, although he delayed baptism until his deathbed.

Recommended, but this detailed work does take concentration. show less

This is my third book by Robin Lane Fox and I read it through respect for his scholarship regarding the ancient world and curiosity as to how classical religion disappeared so completely (and Christianity flourished) in the lands of the ex Roman Empire.

He doesn't retreat from a complex subject, and evaluates the value of varied sources to build a slow and careful picture of events as they unfolded in the first three centuries after the birth of Christ. The overall work has a more academic feeling than for example his excellent "The Classical World" and it does require a fairly high reader commitment, but the reward is undoubtedly a better understanding of this major turning point in history.

The classical world system was breaking show more apart, and a new Christianity based world view was replacing it in Europe and the Middle East. It would later fade in the south when confronted by a militant Islam but continue grow throughout Europe and provide the basis for the first proto European states, not to mention the first European settlements in America.

He provides interesting contrasts between late classical religion and early Christianity showing for example the solidity of early Christianity with its bishops, scriptures, moral rectitude and discipline, contrasting it with a rather hazy and sleazy late classicism with its money making cults, sale of priest hoods, divine emperors and absence of guilt or an afterlife. The general decadence of classical religion was a world away from the centuries earlier works of Homer but as RLF shows,,the Odyssey and the Iliad were more like evidence of an ongoing religion rather than scriptures in themselves and they portrayed rather capricious gods that were not so straightforward as a single Christian divinity.

He relates the multitude of problems that afflicted the Late Empire such as inflation, corruption, barbarian invasions and a general decline in art with the 2nd and 3rd century inscriptions on shrines by local notables being replaced almost exclusively from the mid 3rd century by inscriptions by central Roman governors and high officials.

The appearance of the first Christian emperor (Constantine) in 340A.D. is seen as a major turning point with his attribution of his military victories to his belief in a Christian God - in fact in a rather similar fashion to the Classical emperors with respect to their own warlike Gods.

Overall I found this a worthwhile book that did need a good deal of patience. show less

My second reading of this book does not very closely match my recall of the first reading. I "remembered" far more about Pagan resistance to Christianity, particularly to attacks on shrines both public and private. Either I imagined this material or it was in another book I read at near the same time. Fox gives an extensive examination of the ways in which Pagans experienced their gods: literature, art, private visions and dreams and oracles. He then traces the rise of Christianity, the conversion of Constantine and the resulting decline of Pagan practice.

This is a tough book to write about. Maybe I am not in the target audience for this - I do like reading about history and religion but I am no expert on this particular period of history. Robin Lane Fox has obviously done a vast amount of research and does convey a picture of the time and people's beliefs. His use of historical sources is outstanding and I definitely know more now.

I admire Fox's scholarship and this book is undoubtedly thorough on the subject but I must admit that certain of his habits - especially his use of quotation marks - distracted me from what he was discussing. Another minor quibble is his endnotes, which are all references to other books and articles and as he says himself - "In each part I have amalgamated as show more many notes as possible under a single number in the text, so that they often refer to a sequence of statements just before or just after the number itself." I found this confusing and I ended up ignoring them. That's it for the negatives and they are just my personal opinion.

This is a fascinating look at a turbulent time. Not an easy read but one worth persevering with and I am pleased to have read it. show less

This is a very richly detailed history of the third century C.E., asking the question of how it was that the Eastern Roman Empire went from a near-universal belief in the old pagan gods to Christianity. The "philosophical" oracles of Apollo at Didyma and Claros in Asia minor were frequently consulted and most people felt the local presence of numerous divinities in the period around 170-200 C.E. In 312 C.E. Constantine announced his vision, and thereafter strongly promoted Christianity. The author ranges widely over multiple subjects, from the duties expected of the rich as magistrates and priests of Apollo to the varieties of sexual habits in pagans and Christians. The book certainly shows that the early church absorbed many pagan show more practices and would by no means have conquered all without the relatively fortuitous conversion of Constantine show less

Excellent history of religious environment in late antiquity. Consistent with Peter Brown's approach to early Christianity.