Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition Volume 37

Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition Volume 37

Rapp, Claudia

Hardcover

Series: Transformation of the Classical Heritage, Book 37

Religion General Ancient History General

ISBN10: 0520242963
ISBN13: 9780520242968
Publisher: Univ Of California Pr
Published: Jun 9 2005
Pages: 520
Weight: 1.43
Height: 1.11 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
Between 300 and 600, Christianity experienced a momentous change from persecuted cult to state religion. One of the consequences of this shift was the evolution of the role of the bishop--as the highest Church official in his city--from model Christian to model citizen. Claudia Rapp's exceptionally learned, innovative, and groundbreaking work traces this transition with a twofold aim: to deemphasize the reign of the emperor Constantine, which has traditionally been regarded as a watershed in the development of the Church as an institution, and to bring to the fore the continued importance of the religious underpinnings of the bishop's role as civic leader.

Rapp rejects Max Weber's categories of charismatic versus institutional authority that have traditionally been used to distinguish the nature of episcopal authority from that of the ascetic and holy man. Instead she proposes a model of spiritual authority, ascetic authority and pragmatic authority, in which a bishop's visible asceticism is taken as evidence of his spiritual powers and at the same time provides the justification for his public role. In clear and graceful prose, Rapp provides a wholly fresh analysis of the changing dynamics of social mobility as played out in episcopal appointments.

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