Why read Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries?

Book cover of Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries

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The slaughter of animals for religious feasts, the tinkling of bells to ward off evil during holy rites, the custom of dancing in religious services-these and many other pagan practices persisted in the Christian church for hundreds of years after Constantine proclaimed Christianity the one official religion of Rome. In…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

David Frankfurter

Author

This rich book lays out the vivid (and extensive) evidence for mixtures of Christianity and village traditions all over the post-Constantinian world (feasts and sacrifices, local saints and spirits, sacred trees and fountains).

Clearly, the notion of “the conversion of the Empire” is a vast overstatement since the Christianities we discover in early Christian literature and archaeology are highly idiosyncratic.

From David's list on The best books that describe how ancient peoples embraced Christianity in late antiquity.