Crisis Management in Late Antiquity (410-590 CE)

A Survey of the Evidence from Episcopal Letters
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-90-04-18577-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 121, 286 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 592 g

Reihe: Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements

Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil investigate crisis management as conducted by the increasingly important episcopal class in the 5th and 6th centuries. Their basic source is the neglected corpus of bishops’ letters in Greek and Latin, the letter being the most significant mode of communication and information-transfer in the period from 410 to 590 CE. The volume brings together into a wider setting a wealth of previous international research on episcopal strategies for dealing with crises of various kinds. Six broad categories of crisis are identified and analysed: population displacement, natural disasters, religious disputes and religious violence, social abuses and the breakdown of the structures of dependence. Individual case-studies of episcopal management are provided for each of these categories. This is the first comprehensive treatment of crisis management in the late-antique world, and the first survey of episcopal letter-writing across the later Roman empire.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Allen, Pauline

Neil, Bronwen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 Crisis in Late Antiquity
2 Studying Late-Antique Crisis Management through Letters
3 Population Displacement
4 Natural Disasters
5 Religious Controversies
6 Social Abuses
7 Breakdown in the Structures of Dependence
Conclusion
Appendix: Ancient Author Profiles

Über Autor(innen)

Pauline Allen, Director of the Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, is known internationally for her work on homiletic literature, Maximus the Confessor, the Council of Chalcedon, Severus of Antioch, and letter-writing in Late Antiquity. She is research associate in the Department of Ancient Languages, University of Pretoria.

Bronwen Neil holds the Burke Senior Lectureship in Ecclesiastical Latin at Australian Catholic University, and is Assistant Director of the Centre for Early Christian Studies. She has published widely on Maximus the Confessor, Pope Martin I, Anastasius Bibliothecarius and Pope Leo I, as well as poverty and welfare in Late Antiquity.