Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse (Sather Classical Lectures)

Sather Classical Lectures

by Averil Cameron

Many reasons can be given for the rise of Christianity in late antiquity and its flourishing in the medieval world. In asking how Christianity succeeded in becoming the dominant ideology in the unpromising circumstances of the Roman Empire, Averil Cameron turns to the development of Christian discourse over the first to sixth centuries A.D., investigating the discourse's essential characteristics, its effects on existing forms of communication, and its eventual preeminence. Scholars of late antiquity and general readers interested in this crucial historical period will be intrigued by her exploration of these influential changes in modes of communication.

The emphasis that Christians placed on language―writing, talking, and preaching―made possible the formation of a powerful and indeed a totalizing discourse, argues the author. Christian discourse was sufficiently flexible to be used as a public and political instrument, yet at the same time to be used to express private feelings and emotion. Embracing the two opposing poles of logic and mystery, it contributed powerfully to the gradual acceptance of Christianity and the faith's transformation from the enthusiasm of a small sect to an institutionalized world religion.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theology, Christianity, History

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Dame Averil Millicent Cameron, Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine History at the University of Oxford.

Reviews

[Paul Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this account of how Christianity shaped its discourse to win over the Roman world between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE. Some fascinating themes on how Christian leaders were able to use the rhetoric of the empire to make their case but also add something else which enhanced their reach and impact. Excellent scholarship but also the kind of big picture history which I always really love. A product of the Sather Classical Lectures which for over a century have been getting the best scholars to produce new thinking about the classical world.

[Briana Grenert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be a dream to write a book as influential and well argued as Cameron's. Sometimes, I think it was hard from the vantage point of 2025 to even appreicate the achievment because her arguments here have become so foundational to the way many modern scholars, myself included, think about early Christianity. I've read so many works influenced by Cameron, it was a joy to read her herself at last!

[Harry Maier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cameron's book first came to my attention while researching my book on imagery and Paul. The essays are excellent but especially good is her discussion of emergent visual culture amongst early Christ followers of the first two centuries CE. The book reflects its social location and time of composition is that Cameron somewhat annoyingly writes of "totaliizing discourse" every chance she can get. Today, I think, one would question any straightforward notion of a discourse that has power over everything, or speaks about everything, and situate discussion locally and more perspectively. Also, Averil Cameron clearly does not like Pliny's Panegyric to the Emperor Trajan, as she lets us know what kind of hack she thinks Pliny was also on every occasion she finds possible!