The Missing Link: The Homoian Church in the Danubian Provinces and Its Role in the Conversion of the Goths
Frequently, studies focusing on the fourth-century Trinitarian controversy stop at the 380s and emphasize the importance of the Council of Constantinople and the Council of Aquileia in 381, and the end of Italian rule of the last Homoian emperor, Valentinian II. In very common interpretation, these...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
[2021]
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Illyria
/ Roman Empire
/ Arianism
/ Goths
/ Christianization
/ Ulfilas 310-383
/ History 370-450
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| IxTheo Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KBK Europe (East) KDH Christian sects RJ Mission; missiology |
| Further subjects: | B
Illyricum
B Wulfila B Christianization B Homoianism B Goths B Conversion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Frequently, studies focusing on the fourth-century Trinitarian controversy stop at the 380s and emphasize the importance of the Council of Constantinople and the Council of Aquileia in 381, and the end of Italian rule of the last Homoian emperor, Valentinian II. In very common interpretation, these events mark the virtual end of the Latin Homoianism—its final extirpation. This thesis mightily influenced the modern thinking about Christianization of the Goths and other barbarian peoples. The process was conceptualized as an “ethnic switch” —the people of non-Roman ethnicity embraced the religion while the Romans completely abandoned it. Thereby, the disavowed Roman heresy changed into the creed able to preserve ethnic difference under the Roman pressure of acculturation. In the present paper, I challenge this interpretation. I argue that the Latin Homoian Church survived long into the fifth century and had an active role in the process of converting the Goths into the Homoian Christianity. I also call into question the role of Wulfila as the Apostle of the Goths directly involved in their Christianization in the 370s, the controvertible image created by the fifth-century church historians. By these means, I aim at dismissing a vision of Christianization of the Goths relying on the solitary mission of a single person. The Goths did not cling to Homoianism because it kept them apart from the Roman neighbours and let preserve their traditions. Quite opposite, in the era of the emperor Valens it was an act of political loyalty to the Roman Empire which later under the formative influence of the Latin Homoian Church transformed into the religious identification founded on the concept of Catholicity—quality of being universally right in the matter of faith—and not on ethnic exclusivism. |
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| ISSN: | 1612-961X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zac-2020-0053 |