A Threat to Public Piety: Christians, Platonists, and the Great Persecution

Preface

ix q Preface What is the relationship between philosophical or religious thought and violence? in attempting to understand religious violence , sociologists and other social scientists often assume that material conditions and economic interests are the real motivations for violence directed against particular religious groups. if ideas make a difference at all, we see them as rationalizations, justifications, or explanations for violence, not as motive forces in themselves.1 This book turns the conventional wisdom on its head, for it argues that ideas about correct ritual and metaphysical doctrine inspired people to bring about rome’s last and longest effort forcibly to repress christianity. And it involves philosophers and theologians as the primary source of these ideas, even though they themselves never called for forcible repression of their doctrinal opponents—as far as the surviving evidence indicates. This project arose out of my earlier exploration of the involvement of the ancient christian scholar and theologian lactantius in defending christianity against the criticisms that had undergirded Diocletian’s “Great Persecution .”in The Making of a Christian Empire:Lactantius and Rome, i was primarily interested in excavating the evidence for an exchange of ideas between the African theologian and defender of religious toleration and the first christian emperor, constantine,who drew upon those ideas in fashioning his religious policy after the persecution ended. in the process of telling that story, however, i began increasingly to wonder who were the people—beyond the imperial court—advancing the arguments to which lactantius responded in a number of sophisticated works across the last years of his life. The search to discover those voices and make clear their motivations has occupied me across the past decade and more. 1. see, for example, bernard lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (new york: random house, 2004); Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror and the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (berkeley: university of california Press, 2003); and John McGarry and brendan o’leary, A Time for Peace: Explaining Northern Ireland (oxford: blackwell, 1995). x PREFACE looking back toward the inception of this project, i see clearly how indebted i am to others, both for the time and resources to pursue this inquiry and for the guidance and counsel that helped to shape the final project . in this regard, i thank the American council of learned societies, whose Junior Fellowship (1999–2000) allowed me a full year to unravel and translate the tangle of fragments that is the legacy of the neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry. The interdisciplinary humanities center at the university of california, santa barbara, has, throughout my academic career, been an invaluable resource,and their naming me their resident Fellow for that same year helped me draw deeply on the resources and community of scholars in santa barbara. During my next four years at McGill university, i benefited greatly from university research grants and travel grants,which culminated in the award of a social sciences and humanities research council of canada standard research Grant in 2003. This funding was the single most important grant i received. not only did it allow me the funds to gather all the resources i needed; it also facilitated a wide variety of opportunitites for me to present my work for constructive critique. Finally, the award of a ucsb Faculty senate Annual research grant in 2005, soon after i returned to santa barbara, provided the funds that allowed me to finish my research. Perhaps even more important than funds, however, the support and encouragement of colleagues—from McGill and ucsb to the uc late Antiquity group— helped me see this project through to the end. i am indebted to an entire chorus of colleagues, students, and friends for research assistance, critique, and encouragement. Whatever errors remain in this book are my own,but many of the finer points emerged through conversations with Gillian clark,Paige Digeser,hal Drake,olivier Dufault,susanna elm, eric Fournier, Aaron Johnson, Dayna Kalleres, Ariane Magny, heidi Marx-Wolf, Mike Proulx, claudia rapp, Michele salzman, lindsey scholl, and Jeremy schott. This project also benefited from the indefatigable assistance of Janet Fuchs Jackson, Andy Kauth, nadine Korte, Ada Kuskowska, and Alison Turtledove. i owe a special debt of gratitude to my late friend and colleague Tom sizgorich, whose driving and insistent pursuit of truth and excellence will always be an inspiration. Finally,i am grateful to the many editors and conference organizers (especially shifting Frontiers and the north American Patristics Association) who helped me hone and polish...