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The Persistence of Paganism
Ramsay MacMullen has an encyclopedic knowledge of the Roman empire and early medieval world. But what sets him apart is his ability to mine obscure texts for asides or offhand comments, and then use those fragments to illustrate fundamental point about the society. A case in point. In Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries Prof. MacMullen uses a minor work of Gregory of Tours (c.
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Blogosphere ~ Christianity Has Pagan DNA: Mystery Religions and Early Christianity in the Roman Empire
History of the Ancient World: Christianity Has Pagan DNA: Mystery Religions and Early Christianity in the Roman Empire. Read Post
"Tacitus, in certain respects an utter fool"
It's not every day that you run across one of the leading modern historians of the Roman Empire calling the man generally regarded as the finest ancient Roman historian "an utter fool", but that is what Ramsay MacMullen has to say a... Read Post
"He sees to the salvation of your hen"
Having posted recently about sacred pagan chickens, I was delighted to run across a fowl reference in a post-pagan Christian setting. It appears in Ramsay MacMullen's Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, in t... Read Post