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Title:
Through the eye of a needle : wealth, the fall of Rome, and the making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD / Peter Brown.
Author:
Brown, Peter, 1935-
Publication Information:
Princeton : Princeton University Press, ©2012.
Call Number:
BR162.3 .B77 2012
Abstract:
Traces the intellectual and social history of wealth in the early Christian church, examining the financial rise of the church and its effects on the waning Roman empire as well as the church's own beliefs on poverty.
ISBN:
9780691152905

9780691161778
Physical Description:
xxx, 759 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm
Contents:
Aurea aetas : wealth in an age of gold -- Mediocritas : the social profile of the Latin Church, 312-ca. 370 -- Amor civicus = love of the city : wealth and its uses in an ancient world -- "Treasure in heaven" : wealth in the Christian church -- Symmachus : being noble in fourth-century Rome -- Avidus civicae gratiae = greedy for the good favor of the city : Symmachus and the people of Rome ; Ambrose and his people -- "Avarice, the root of all evil" : Ambrose and Northern Italy -- Augustine : spes saeculi : careerism, patronage, and religious bonding, 354-384 -- From Milan to Hippo : Augustine and the making of a religious community, 384-396 -- "The life in common of a kind of divine and heavenly republic" : Augustine on public and private in a monastic community -- Ista vero saecularia = those things, indeed, of the world : Ausonius, villas, and the language of wealth -- Ex opulentissimo divite = From being rich as rich can be : Paulinus of Nola and the renunciation of wealth, 389-395 -- Commercium spirituale = The spiritual exchange : Paulinus of Nola and the poetry of wealth, 395-408 -- Propter magnificentiam urbis Romae = by reason of the magnificence of the city of Rome : the Roman rich and their clergy, from Constantine to Damasus, 312-384 -- "To sing the Lord's song in a strange land" : Jerome in Rome, 382-385 -- Between Rome and Jerusalem : women, patronage, and learning, 385-412 -- "The eye of a needle" and "the treasure of the soul" : renunciation, nobility, and the Sack of Rome, 405-413 -- Tolle divitem = Take away the rich : the Pelagian criticism of wealth -- Augustine's Africa : people and church -- "Dialogues with the crowd" : the rich, the people, and the city in the sermons of Augustine -- Dimitte nobis debita nostra = forgive us our sins : Augustine, wealth, and Pelagianism, 411-417 -- "Out of Africa" : wealth, power, and the churches, 415-430 -- "Still at that time a more affluent empire" : the crisis of the West in the fifth century -- Among the saints : Marseilles, Arles, and Lérins, 400-440 -- Romana respublica vel iam mortua = With the empire now dead and gone : Salvian and his Gaul, 420-450 -- Ob Italiae securitatem = For the security of Italy : Rome and Italy, ca. 430-ca. 530 -- Patrimonia pauperum = patrimonies of the poor : wealth and conflict in the churches of the sixth century -- Servator fidei, patriaeque semper amator = guardian of the faith, and always lover of (his) homeland : wealth and piety in the sixth century.

pt. 1. Wealth, Christianity, and giving at the end of an ancient world -- Aurea aetas : wealth in an age of gold ; Mediocritas : the social profile of the Latin Church, 312-ca. 370 ; Amor civicus = Love of the city : wealth and its uses in an ancient world ; "Treasure in heaven" : wealth in the Christian church -- pt. 2. An age of affluence -- Symmachus : being noble in fourth-century Rome ; Avidus civicae gratiae = Greedy for the good favor of the city : Symmachus and the people of Rome ; Ambrose and his people ; "Avarice, the root of all evil" : Ambrose and Northern Italy ; Augustine : spes saeculi : careerism, patronage, and religious bonding, 354-384 ; From Milan to Hippo : Augustine and the making of a religious community, 384-396 ; "The life in common of a kind of divine and heavenly republic" : Augustine on public and private in a monastic community ; Ista vero saecularia = Those things, indeed, of the world : Ausonius, villas, and the language of wealth ; Ex opulentissimo divite = From being rich as rich can be : Paulinus of Nola and the renunciation of wealth, 389-395 ; Commercium spirituale = The spiritual exchange : Paulinus of Nola and the poetry of wealth, 395-408 ; Propter magnificentiam urbis Romae = By reason of the magnificence of the city of Rome : the Roman rich and their clergy, from Constantine to Damasus, 312-384 ; "To sing the Lord's song in a strange land" : Jerome in Rome, 382-385 ; Between Rome and Jerusalem : women, patronage, and learning, 385-412 -- pt. 3. An age of crisis -- "The eye of a needle" and "the treasure of the soul" : renunciation, nobility, and the Sack of Rome, 405-413 ; Tolle divitem = Take away the rich : the Pelagian criticism of wealth ; Augustine's Africa : people and church ; "Dialogues with the crowd" : the rich, the people, and the city in the sermons of Augustine ; "Dimitte nobis debita nostra" = Forgive us our sins : Augustine, wealth, and Pelagianism, 411-417 ; "Out of Africa" : wealth, power, and the churches, 415-430 ; "Still at that time a more affluent empire" : the crisis of the West in the fifth century -- pt. 4. Aftermaths -- Among the saints : Marseilles, Arles, and Lérins, 400-440 ; Romana respublica vel iam mortua = With the empire now dead and gone : Salvian and his Gaul, 420-450 ; Ob Italiae securitatem = For the security of Italy : Rome and Italy, ca. 430-ca. 530 -- pt. 5. Toward another world -- Patrimonia pauperum = Patrimonies of the poor : wealth and conflict in the churches of the sixth century ; Servator fidei, patriaeque semper amator = Guardian of the Faith, and always lover of (his) homeland : wealth and piety in the sixth century.
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