CHRISTIANIZATION AND ITS CHALLENGESEven when the power of religious beliefs to exercise a dynamic force in
history is recognized, the amount of surviving evidence is such, and the level
of bias in many of the sources also so great that it is still extremely challeng-
ing to understand the real nature of late antique religious change or the real
religious contours of late antiquity. High on the list of questions now being
addressed are: the date when paganism fi nally ceased to be a real alternative;
the relations between Christians and Jews and the nature of Judaism and Jew-
ish communities in late antiquity; the struggle to defi ne Christian orthodoxy
and condemn and eradicate heresy; the separation of the Chalcedonian and
non-Chalcedonian churches after the failure of imperial efforts to preserve
church unity; and, at the end of our period, the emergence of Islam as a new
monotheistic religion.
Several collective works have been published in recent years on Christianity
in late antiquity. Volumes two and (particularly) three of the French Histoire
du christianisme des origines à nos jours cover most of our period,^8 and volume two
of the Cambridge History of Christianity, edited by A. Casiday and F.W. Norris,^9
deals with the post-Constantinian period to 600. It is true, however, as pow-
erfully argued by J. Rüpke,^10 that most of the huge amount of scholarship on
religion, and especially on Christianity, in late antiquity has yet to contextual-
ize it fully in relation to the dynamic social, political and economic develop-
ments in the period. As Rüpke writes, ‘intensive inter-action across ethnic and
religious divides is evident everywhere. It is manifested in social contacts and
elite formation, in philosophical thinking and in juridical procedure, in archi-
tectural style and in economic exchanges.’^11 Studies of conversion manifest
similar problems.^12 The level of Christianization is extremely hard to judge,
and is often over-estimated when the Christian sources are taken too much at
face value,^13 and the continuance of paganism or polytheism is misunderstood
for similar reasons. The present chapter does not aim to solve these problems
of methodology but rather to provide an introduction to key factors in reli-
gious development, inevitably with a focus on Christianity and starting with
some basics.
The physical setting: church buildingIn the post-Constantinian period churches became progressively grander and
more visible. Once persecution ended, the way was opened for the devel-
opment of ecclesiastical architecture as such. Constantine ringed the city of
Rome with new churches built at established sites of Christian worship con-
nected with the martyrs,^14 and city churches included St Peter’s, over the site
traditionally associated with Peter’s death and burial, and the Lateran basilica,
which became the cathedral church. He and his mother Helena each built
churches in the Holy Land, including the Anastasis in Jerusalem, over the site
believed to be the tomb of Christ, and the Church of the Nativity at Bethle-
hem where Jesus was born, and Constantine began the octagonal church at
Antioch. Later emperors followed his example. In Constantinople the earliest