Anatolia: Volume II: The Rise of the Church

Anatolia: Volume II: The Rise of the Church Synopsis

This is the first comprehensive study of the history of Asia Minor in antiquity to be written for nearly fifty years and the first attempt to treat Anatolian history as a whole over the millennium from the time of Alexander the Great to tbe hey-day of the Byzantine Empire. This second volume examines the rise of Christianity: Anatolian religious beliefs and practices provides fertile ground where both Jewish and Christian communities set down early roots; by the mid third century AD much of Anatolia was Christian, and Christian beliefs and practices shaped Anatolian history in Late Antiquity as decisively as the conditions of imperial rule had done in the high Roman Empire. Two relationships dominated every aspect of Asia Minor's history: that of the people to the land, and that of men to the gods. An enormous quantity of information derived from written sources, archaeological remains, inscriptions and coins make it possible to explore these relationships at a level of detail which is hardly possible for anyother part of the ancient world. Both themes have a significance which reached far beyond the boundaries of Anatolia.