Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 Ad (Paperback)

from deusvitae

An excellent, magisterial investigation into the history of Latin Western Christianity from 350-550 through a focus on material wealth, its handling, and its influence. The author demonstrates well how this time period is crucial to explain the shifts that take place between "ancient" and "mediev...

from jsburbidge

This is a thorough and enlightening study of the development of the Western Church from the Fourth through the Sixth centuries seen through the filter of how it dealt with the rich and with the idea of wealth in general. The major focus is on Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome, but a great deal of at...

from le.vert.galant

Working with what seems like a fairly prosaic theme, Peter Brown has written a tremendous history that suggests that the relationship of the Church in late antiquity to wealth and the wealthy is a key driver of the establishment of Christianity in the West. By quoting extensively from major intel...

from languagehat

This learned and well-written book totally transformed my understanding of both the later Roman Empire and the early centuries of Christianity. To take one example, I knew Carthage was an important city, but I had no idea how important; it was essentially the Rome of North Africa, its hinterland ...

from stillatim

Magisterial, well-written, but perhaps a little too detailed for the common reader. Brown seems to be making up a field of study as much as actually studying a field, which is of course very impressive, but I also found myself wondering what exactly he was looking at--there are lots of texts and ...