Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine by Brent D. Shaw (review)

Does anyone read books of nine hundred pages from beginning to end? What is the basic length tolerated by the average reader? A book too heavy to hold in bed must be ruled out, so about three hundred in hardback is the maximum. But many serious historical studies, running to more than three times that figure, provide endless detailed analysis, useful in small doses, though not usually written to be read for pleasure. So it is a delight to report that, if you can bear it (physically and mentally), Shaw’s Sacred Violence supplies a compelling narrative. Centered on a critical theological debate held by a Roman tribune in Carthage in 411, the basic narrative is flanked by enormous digressions designed to make sense of the forces involved, and it concludes with the self-inflicted violence of suicide, which is how the author characterizes Christian martyrdom. This book is the fruit of many years of intense reading in Latin texts (all of them well translated here) that were produced in North Africa in the first six centuries AD, and it clearly is inspired by modern analogues, drawn particularly from developments in Northern Ireland and from modern authors like Camus. Shaw takes a novel view of gang violence, including that of the riotous young men and women known as circumcelliones (here identified as migrant harvest workers, who moved from one estate to another to be hired as casual laborers), and he stresses the important role of uneducated hearers, whom historians often neglect in favor of overeducated preachers. “Age of Augustine” implies dates of c. 350 to 430, but Shaw’s much wider purview includes the long earlier history of dissent and opposition to imperial rule in Africa. The end point, though, remains the same: violent conquest by Vandals, which resulted in a persecuting Arian clergy and terminated the key role of North Africa in the Roman world. Sadly, this book is too heavy for bedtime reading, but anyone strong enough to try will find it difficult to put down.