Ramsay MacMullen (1928–2022)
Auteur de Christianizing the Roman Empire : AD 100-400
A propos de l'auteur
Ramsay MacMullen is Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University.
Crédit image: Yale University
Œuvres de Ramsay MacMullen
Oeuvres associées
The 17th International Byzantine Congress: Major Papers: Dumbarton Oaks/Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., August… (1986) — Contributeur — 3 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- MacMullen, Ramsay
- Date de naissance
- 1928-03-03
- Date de décès
- 2022-11-28
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- Etats-Unis
- Lieu de naissance
- New York, New York, Etats-Unis
- Lieu du décès
- New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Lieux de résidence
- New Haven, Connecticut, Etats-Unis
- Études
- Harvard University (Ph.D|1957)
Harvard University (AM|1953)
Harvard College (AB|summa cum laude|1950) - Professions
- Professeur (Histoire)
Historien (Rome, Antiquité)
Romaniste - Organisations
- Université de Yale, New Heaven (Professeur, Histoire et lettres classiques)
- Prix et distinctions
- American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction (2001)
Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize (2013)
Membres
Discussions
Pagans and Christians à Ancient History (Novembre 2012)
Critiques
Listes
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 18
- Aussi par
- 4
- Membres
- 1,687
- Popularité
- #15,242
- Évaluation
- 3.5
- Critiques
- 13
- ISBN
- 69
- Langues
- 2
- Favoris
- 2
He discusses the political and social ascent of Christianity and the tide of anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism that accompanied it. The new dominance of supernatural thinking demanded continued expressions and mechanisms for celebration, community, and magic that had been developed in the pagan world, but were lacking in Christianity. So there was ultimately an assimilation of pagan forms of practice, leading to survivals even into modern times.
The narrative of assimilation that MacMullen offers makes this book into something like a complement to Hislop's The Two Babylons. Where Hislop's Protestant paranoia guided his interpretation of the pagan features of traditional Christianity (which he read as the pernicious conspiracy of the Roman Church), MacMullen appreciates the basic social and cultural dynamics that made such assimilation necessary and inevitable.
MacMullen emphasizes the qualitative difference between Christianity, a religion prioritizing creed and rooted in texts, and its local and imperial predecessors, anchored in practices and tolerant of varying or absent belief. He cautions against "presentist" bias in the treatment of ancient religions (107), and he welcomes the anthropological perspectives that have made it "common to accept the impossibility of separating magic from religion" (144).
Half of the book is endnotes, opaquely replete with a classicist's pervasive abbreviations, and the body of the text is laden with data that sometimes feel difficult to keep in context and perspective. But the argument is worth following, and represents a sane and realistic take on an important historical change of episteme.… (plus d'informations)