Century of Miracles

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-0-19-754138-8
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 405 g

The fourth century of our common era began and ended with a miracle. Traditionally, in the year 312, the Roman emperor Constantine experienced a "vision of the Cross" that led him to convert to Christianity and to defeat his last rival to the imperial throne; and, in 394, a divine wind carried the emperor Theodosius to victory at the battle of the Frigidus River. In A Century of Miracles, historian H. A. Drake explores the role miracle stories such as these played in helping Christians, pagans, and Jews think about themselves and each other. These stories, he concludes, bolstered Christian belief that their god wanted the empire to be Christian. Most importantly, they help explain how, after a century of trumpeting the power of their god, Christians were able to deal with their failure to protect the city of Rome from a barbarian sack by the Gothic army of Alaric in 410. Thoroughly researched within a wide range of faiths and belief systems, A Century of Miracles provides an absorbing illumination of this complex, polytheistic, and decidedly mystical phenomenon.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Drake, H. A.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Illustrations

- Acknowledgements

- Abbreviations

- Introduction

- Chapter One: Historians and the Miraculous

- Chapter Two: Theodosius's Miracle

- Chapter Three: Constantine's Miracle

- Chapter Four: Miracle Doctors

- Chapter Five: The Miracle of the Cross

- Chapter Six: Jews in Miracles

- Chapter Seven: Miracle in the Desert

- Chapter Eight: Miracles on Trial

- Chapter Nine: Failed Miracles

- Chapter Ten: Alaric, Augustine, and the End of a Century of Miracles

- Epilogue: The Story of Titus

- Notes

- Primary Sources

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

H. A. Drake is Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Constantine and the Bishops.