Transformation of the Roman West

English language

Published 2018 by Arc Humanities Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-942401-45-2

(1 review)

The history of the Late Roman Empire in the West has been divided into two parallel worlds, analysed either as a political and economic transformation or as a religious and cultural one. But how do these relate one to another? In this concise and effective synthesis, Ian Wood considers some ways in which religion and the Church can be reintegrated into what has become a largely secular discourse. The Church was at the heart of the changes that look place at the end of the Western Empire, not only regarding religion, but indeed every aspect of politics and society. Wood contends that the institutionalisation of the Church on a huge scale was a key factor in the transformation which began in the early fourth century with an incipiently Christian Roman Empire and ended three hundred years later in a world of thoroughly Christianised kingdoms.

3 editions

gesang reviewed Transformation of the Roman West by Ian Wood (Past Imperfect)

Terse, dry assembly of facts

3 stars

Essentially a two-part book. The first part of the book, from the 1st to the 3rd chapter, is a compact summary of studies and positions conducted by others regarding the transformation of the Roman West. From the 4th chapter onward, it concentrates on religion, or the impact of the rise of Christianity on the Roman West, how it transformed the Roman West. The study is largely fact and evidence driven, with little speculative efforts. Nothing really new is in the book for a non-researcher. The main point of the book may be exemplified by the following passage:

Rather than seeing the Carolingians as rejuvenating a religiously and culturally impoverished Age, we need to ask rather if Charles Martel and Pippin III temporarily undermined an essentially religious socio-political system. While we tend to see the Carolingian Age as marking a major development in the Christian ideology of rule, we should perhaps …

Essentially a two-part book. The first part of the book, from the 1st to the 3rd chapter, is a compact summary of studies and positions conducted by others regarding the transformation of the Roman West. From the 4th chapter onward, it concentrates on religion, or the impact of the rise of Christianity on the Roman West, how it transformed the Roman West. The study is largely fact and evidence driven, with little speculative efforts. Nothing really new is in the book for a non-researcher. The main point of the book may be exemplified by the following passage:

Rather than seeing the Carolingians as rejuvenating a religiously and culturally impoverished Age, we need to ask rather if Charles Martel and Pippin III temporarily undermined an essentially religious socio-political system. While we tend to see the Carolingian Age as marking a major development in the Christian ideology of rule, we should perhaps see it also as marking a reconstitution of a religious system that the Arnulfing ancestors of the Carolingians themselves had broken through the secularization of Church property by Charles Martel—a policy necessitated by the need for military reform following the arrival of the Islamic forces.

Subjects

History
Roman History