Christianity And Paganism In 4-8 Cent. :: essays research papers

     The consensus among many historians has been that the transition from paganism to Christianity in the Mediterranean world was effortlessly accomplished by the difference of the fourth century. In Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen sets out to disprove the consensus, which he maintains is an understandable mis reading considering the "corrupt foundation" of historical records it rested upon. He makes his case by covering a wide range of corporeal to show that Christianity did not destroy paganism as much as merge with it. Through his brilliant and original display of primary and auxiliary source material it becomes evident that paganism remained alive and deep-rooted desire after Constantine. Many factors appear to have caused this, most prominently the colossal extent of the empire and consequent diversity of tribal and local customs, which met peoples effortless needs. Christianity replaced paganism but when the people believed it could do more for them what paganism had through with(p) (1). This was especiall(a)y true of protection and of healing, primarily physical but similarly psychological. People flocked to the shrines of Asclepius and others Could the Christian god, or more likely, the Christian saints, fill those situation?     Most scholars of spectral history probably accept, if they are honest to themselves, that religious history is a notoriously slippery business. Therefore, it is to the benefit of all historians to be aware of the great variety of interpretations that are available. History is an ongoing discourse, in which many different interpretations can and should be written on the same history, each striking at least one chord that supporters of an opposing or different view can find significant. The validity of an interpretation of a particular history is fundamentally dependent on the public of a sufficient amount of quality narr atives or records of historical events to turn in a skeletal structure to assist in pinpointing relationships between people, cartridge clip and space (2). MacMullen maintains that the historical records of late antiquity are not only insufficient, but also distorted. The upstart Antique historical record seems to incorrectly suggest that paganism was not only defeated by the end of the fourth century, but had in fact successfully converted all of the pagans. In addition to the fact that the majority of historical records involving a competitiveness tend to focus on the winner, he asserts that the reason the historical records of Late Antiquity are unintelligible is because ecclesiastical and secular authorities washed-up or distorted them.