Crossroads: Late Antiquity and the Church

(CRD 32)

"Crossroads” is a comparative journey that will take you to a pinnacle moment of Western culture for five weeks, and then to a paired episode from a contemporaneous non-Western culture for another five weeks. Every course will be richly illustrated with slides of art, architecture, and archaeology; and one great book from the world’s best literature, philosophy, or religious thought will be the primary reading for each segment. We invite you to join us on our journey.

Late Antiquity and the Church

When Alexander Severus was assassinated in 235 CE, the Roman Empire entered into a long period of decline militarily, politically, and culturally. This decline culminated in the complete disappearance of its western provinces in 476 ce when Romulus Augustulus abdicated, and the transformation of its eastern provinces into what would eventually become the Byzantine Empire. Although this long decline was punctuated by periods of relative peace and order, especially during the reigns of Diocletian (284–305), Constantine (307–337), Theodosius II (408–450), and Justinian (527–565), the glory of Rome as the heir of classical civilization was over. A new ideology, Christianity, and a new institution, the Church, now dominated the Western world. The old ideals of the Greco-Roman past, its traditions and beliefs, its political and social values, its aesthetic perceptions, were gradually discarded and forgotten. The arts — architecture, sculpture, mosaic —were drastically altered to serve the new faith, and a new group of writers — St. Augustine and St. Benedict, Boethius and Prudentius—developed a dramatically different vision of this world, one that would define European civilization for the next millennium.

See also: Crossroads: The Islamic Tradition

Edward Steidle, Lecturer in English

Edward Steidle joined Stanford’s English faculty in 1984. His area of specialization is medieval art and literature. He is currently working on comparative approaches to the study of ancient European, Asian, and Central American cultures. He also leads travel groups to historic sites in Italy and the Aegean.