This lecture will be set in North Africa in the age of Saint Augustine (354-430). It will deal with the change in the social imagination of the Roman world, by which the poor emerged as the primary objects of Christian giving. This involved the eclipse of the previous, civic model on which the classical tradition of civic euergetism had been based. Giving to the poor was held to expiate sins. Augustine’s controversy with Pelagius and his upper-class Roman supporters led him to stress the need for constant expiation as the essence of the Christian life. This meant that giving (to the poor and to the church) “for the remission of sins” was to be a permanent feature of the life of the churches. Spectacular renunciations and the endowment of churches and monasteries by the very rich (a Christian avatar of the classical tradition of euergetism) meant less to him than did regular giving in which all classes were involved. As a result, Augustine viewed with the greatest distrust any views of the afterlife that threatened to weaken the sense of the urgent need for penance in this life.
Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton University; Professor Brown is credited with having created the field of study referred to as late antiquity (250-800 A.D.); the period during which Rome fell, the three major monotheistic religions took shape, and Christianity spread across Europe. A native of Ireland, Professor Brown earned his B.A. in history from Oxford University (1956), where he taught until 1975 as a Fellow of All Souls College. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 after teaching at the University of London and the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Brown’s primary interests are the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity, and he has pursued them through investigations into such diverse topics as Roman rhetoric, the cult of the saints, the body and sexuality, and wealth and poverty. He is currently working on the problems of wealth, poverty, and care of the poor in late antiquity and early medieval periods.
Peter Brown`s numerous published works include:
Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire, Hanover: University Press of New England, 2002.
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-1000 A.D, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996/2002.
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, London/ New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971/1989.
Augustine of Hippo. A Biography, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967/2000.
This lecture will be set in North Africa in the age of Saint Augustine (354-430). It will deal with the change in the social imagination of the Roman world, by which the poor emerged as the primary objects of Christian giving. This involved the eclipse of the previous, civic model on which the classical tradition of civic euergetism had been based. Giving to the poor was held to expiate sins. Augustine’s controversy with Pelagius and his upper-class Roman supporters led him to stress the need for constant expiation as the essence of the Christian life. This meant that giving (to the poor and to the church) “for the remission of sins” was to be a permanent feature of the life of the churches. Spectacular renunciations and the endowment of churches and monasteries by the very rich (a Christian avatar of the classical tradition of euergetism) meant less to him than did regular giving in which all classes were involved. As a result, Augustine viewed with the greatest distrust any views of the afterlife that threatened to weaken the sense of the urgent need for penance in this life.
Peter Brown, Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus at Princeton University; Professor Brown is credited with having created the field of study referred to as late antiquity (250-800 A.D.); the period during which Rome fell, the three major monotheistic religions took shape, and Christianity spread across Europe. A native of Ireland, Professor Brown earned his B.A. in history from Oxford University (1956), where he taught until 1975 as a Fellow of All Souls College. He joined the Princeton faculty in 1986 after teaching at the University of London and the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Brown’s primary interests are the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity, and he has pursued them through investigations into such diverse topics as Roman rhetoric, the cult of the saints, the body and sexuality, and wealth and poverty. He is currently working on the problems of wealth, poverty, and care of the poor in late antiquity and early medieval periods.
Peter Brown`s numerous published works include:
Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire, Hanover: University Press of New England, 2002.
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-1000 A.D, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996/2002.
The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150–750, London/ New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971/1989.
Augustine of Hippo. A Biography, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967/2000.
