Soldiers of Christ from the Byzantine Perspective: Monks, Emperors, and Conflict in the Early Byzantine Empire
This article is an exploration of concept of monks as soldiers of Christ in Byzantine Anatolia during the late sixth and early seventh centuries CE. Through a case study of Theodore of Sykeon, this article will explore monks as agents of continuity in the Byzantine Anatolia of the late sixth and e...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of religious history
Year: 2017, Volume: 41, Issue: 3, Pages: 291-311 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Theodoros, Sykeotes
/ Byzantine Empire
/ Monk
/ Soldier
/ History 650-750
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| RelBib Classification: | AX Inter-religious relations BE Greco-Roman religions CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations CG Christianity and Politics KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This article is an exploration of concept of monks as soldiers of Christ in Byzantine Anatolia during the late sixth and early seventh centuries CE. Through a case study of Theodore of Sykeon, this article will explore monks as agents of continuity in the Byzantine Anatolia of the late sixth and early seventh centuries through Theodore's conflicts with the emperors, imperial authorities, and the regional episcopal hierarchy. The conflicts Theodore had with various authority figures of his time were about helping them see the right path of supporting Catholic orthodoxy as the normative belief system of Byzantine society and integrating his rural community of Sykeon into the wider web of imperial and episcopal urban patronage. Thus, conflict in this context was a catalyst for social order and stability rather than a symptom of social collapse. This article also fits into the historiography of the holy man as local patron in Late Antiquity, suggesting an alternate interpretation of this phenomenon as first put forward in Peter Brown's seminal works on this subject. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9809 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12403 |