Barbarian Conversion

Richard Fletcher has written a brilliant and comprehensive history of the expansion of Christianity in Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Having a professional interest in the phenomena, this is the first resource I would recommend for those interested in the growth of the Church between 400 - 1100 and the gradual inter-marriage between religious and secular authority in the early and high middle ages. The first half of the book was of most interest to me, as Fletcher discusses the relationship between the decaying Roman empire and the spread of Christianity. Much to my suprise, Christianity was initally "only for Romans", without much effort placed in bothering to convert the growing number of Germanic "barbarians" settling in western Europe. Over the course of the next two centuries, Fletcher does a marvelous job of explaining how a Mediterranean religion was gradually embraced by non-Latin peoples. (In a nutshell, the new arrivals borrowed extensively from Rome, including religion, before a real prosletizing movement began.) The syncretism between pagan and Christian practices and beliefs was not addressed in as much detail as I had hoped, but Fletcher can be forgiven this as he does a remarkable job of connecting the historical dots between conversion of rulers and the gradual embrace of Christiantiy by the common folk. In spite of the dearth of source material and the obvious slant of Christian writers of the time, he lucidly shows conversion was not immeadiate, whole nor easy - his deductions, inferences and explainations as to how it happened, what the challenges faced by missionaries were, and what the short and long term consequenes were are vividly shown. That Europe as a whole was not Christianized by even as late as 1000 and even in "Christian" areas like the Rhine valley there were pockets of paganism may come as a surprise to many. Why this was and the close inter-relationship between church and state during this time is also clearly explained. The book is really written with the specialist in mind: serious students of history or theology, or those with a burning desire to know intimate details about this issue in particular. It is exhaustively researched and cited and provides an excellent bibliography for even further reading. For the lay reader (or non-professional) interested in just *how* Christianity was adopted, the first 200 pages would be adequate, and even then with judicial skimming. WIth this caveat, I found it to be detailed, deep, and endlessly fascinating.

This is easily one of the most entertaining, and readable, works on this topic I've encountered. Fletcher's style is witty, chatty, and accessible. I couldn't put this book down, and devoured it in 4 days. Every chapter was as good as the last, and I plan on re-reading it soon. His frequent references to prominent historical people and events help you really connect the material with other information about the area, giving you a more complete picture of the people and their times.

This book is a compendium of dates, places, facts, and personages bearing on the penetration of Christianity into pagan Europe from Late Antiquity onwards. In scope, the book is large. The author marshalls overwhelming masses of supporting data to make his clearly stated points. In many regards, the methodology harks back to an earlier era of scholarship which in its extreme is represented by "The Golden Bough." Solidly and in a workman like fashion Flechter makes his case. He never overstates his grasp of the subject nor stretches his sources to reach some desired conclusion. This is a highly instructive and necessary book on this topic. It is neither a "be all" or "end all" with regards to the broad areas investigated, however, overlooking or dismissing its scholarship because it is not in a trendy form would be a mistake. This is a major secondary source on its subject matter.

Although the Roman Empire slowly disintegrated its religion Christianity was able to live on and to be accepted by the states and tribes who conquered it. This book is a description of the process. The author shows how the process was a complex one and depended on range of factors not just the mechanics of individual conversion. The reality was that Christian missionaries achieved conversions by winning over the kings and leader of the various new groups who conquered Rome. The basis of this varied from case to case. Sometimes conversion was the result of success in battle or a cure. Sometimes the wife of a king may have been the vehicle of conversion. The critical thing was that once a king was converted to Christianity all of the old ideas and beliefs were stamped out. This intolerance led to the success of Christianity as there was no religion that could replace it until the rise of Islam.The history of conversion is thus replete with early chroniclers telling proud stories of the destruction of sacred groves, the burning of idols and the conversion of temples into churches. The early success of the church was thus based on the power of the state to suppress any dissent.The write of the book appears to be a Christian who at the end concludes that the conversion of Europe created in the medieval feudal state a well run and compassionate social apparatus. It is thus surprising that some who have read the book found that he was somewhat biased.The book is based on enormous scholarship and gives a the flavour of the time.

Richard Flethcer's book is everything a work of popular history should be. He's a serious scholar who can actually write, and who has a sense of humor and irony as well. I knew little of the details of the process by which Europe became Christian before reading this book. For some reason, that process has never caught the popular imagination. Turns out the process was a long one, and it had interesting local variations. Fletcher is especially good at conveying how different the world of late antiquity was from our own, how little is known of the indigneous religion of Europe, and how great a role miracles and marriages played in the process.