Christianizing Asia Minor: Conversion, Communities, and Social Change in the Pre-Constantinian Era

Description

Paul McKechnie explores how Christianity grew and expanded in Roman Asia over the first three centuries of the religion. Focusing on key individuals, such as Aberkios (Avircius Marcellus) of Hierapolis, he assesses the pivotal role played by Early Christian preachers who, in imitation of Paul of Tarsus, attracted converts through charismatic preaching. By the early fourth century, they had brought many cities and rural communities to a tipping point at which they were ready to move under a 'Christian canopy' and push polytheistic Greco-Roman religion to the margins. This volume brings new clarity of our understanding of how the Christian church grew and thrived in Asia Minor, simultaneously changing Roman society and being changed by it. Combining patristic evidence with the archaeological and epigraphic record, McKechnie's study creates a strong factual and chronological framework to the study of Christianization, while bringing Church History and Roman history more closely together.

Paul McKechnie is an associate professor in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney. He is the author of The First Christian Centuries (2001).

'Ancient Phrygia was as complex and diverse to the Roman mind as it appears to us today. That complexity runs through the rise of early Christianity. Paul McKechnie brings a much-needed forensic clarity to the intricacies of evidence, handling material and textual data with judicious and insightful care - from archaeology to hagiographies, inscriptions to conciliar rulings. This book is a crucial contribution to the study of Christianity in Asia Minor and enables us to see more vividly the distinctive and variegated character of the sacred canopy shaped by its Phrygian setting.' Alan Cadwallader, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales