Imperial Ideology: The Idea of the Universal Christian Empire in Late Antiquity

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Date
2008-03
Authors
Records, Christopher
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Publisher
Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal
Abstract
This paper examines the evolution of Christian universalist ideologies from the year 300 AD to about 800 AD, with a focus on their development in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. It traces how the interaction of ideology with political reality- imperial decline, internal ideological and ecclesiastical disunity, and other challenges- resulted in the eventual development of other universalist ideologies at the dawn of the medieval period, among them the idea of Latin Christendom and the Byzantine commonwealth idea.
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Keywords
Christianity -- Byzantine Empire , Byzantine Empire -- Church history , Church history
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