The passage of texts from scroll to codex created a revolution in the religious life of late antiquity. It played a decisive role in the Roman Empire’s conversion to Christianity and eventually enabled the worldwide spread of Christian faith. The Scriptural Universe of Ancient Christianity describes how canonical scripture was established and how scriptural interpretation replaced blood sacrifice as the central element of religious ritual. Perhaps more than any other cause; Guy G. Stroumsa argues; the codex converted the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianity.The codex permitted a mode of religious transmission across vast geographical areas; as sacred texts and commentaries circulated in book translations within and beyond Roman borders. Although sacred books had existed in ancient societies; they were now invested with a new aura and a new role at the core of religious ceremony. Once the holy book became central to all aspects of religious experience; the floodgates were opened for Greek and Latin texts to be reimagined and repurposed as proto-Christian. Most early Christian theologians did not intend to erase Greek and Roman cultural traditions; they were content to selectively adopt the texts and traditions they deemed valuable and compatible with the new faith; such as Platonism. The new cultura christiana emerging in late antiquity would eventually become the backbone of European identity.
#1631502 in Books Harvard University Press 1988-11-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 #File Name: 0674390768320 pages
Review
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Essential to understand culture in Imperialist SocietyBy Tony ThomasSimply put; across the late 19th Century the newly consolidate ruling class of industrial and financial magnates seized control over the definitions of culture; established an iron wall between high and low culture; moved to change the relationship between audience and performer; and between performers and those who dicated culture and owned cultural institutions; and changed museums and libraries from institutions established to broaden knowledge for all into places where the elite contemplate perfection.Levine is one of the great historians; having done his featured work on African American history and culture. Yet; he writes in clear; understandable language. The book is extremely well referenced with every section's notes being the beginning for scholarship and knowledge on what he speaks.Published in 1990; the book can hardly be taken to task for developments that have come to fruition since then. Music and culture once seen as alternatives to the Eurocentric approaches to high culture Levine outlines; seem to have proceded along the same lines. Free and post-modern Jazz; once the product of an iconoclast approach to mainline Jazz; has tended to take the view that it is "high art" to be comprehended by the totally advanced versus entertainment; while a politically conservative trend to paint Jazz as the U.S/s "true" classical music demand that Jazz emulate European "classical" music with a canon and repertory orchestras aimed at reproducing that canon. Meanwhile; they expel Jazz artists with strong links to Black popular music and dance from their definitions of Jazz. Few tend to share the views of Art Blakey and others about the need to reestablish Jazz as a form of dance and entertainment music for African Americans. My own focus has been on traditional Black and European American string band music; marketed as "Old Time Music" by record companies in the 1920s. This music was originally produced as pure entertainment for dancing and amusement for the most humble workers; farmers; share croppers; and small businesspeople of the South. Yet; in OTM there is often such an emphasis on knowledge of the history; folkways; and cultural references that one might think that like the art and drama Levine shows to have been "high browed;" some believe that OTM can only be appreciated or performed by those who have amassed sufficient knowledge. Indeed; the entire hipster approach that emerged in the Jazz age with Jazz; Blues; folk; and other alternative musics mirrors the high brow approach used around high culture. Implict in being a hipster is the belief that whatever may be popular is intrinsictly inferior to that "hip" sound that only a small sector of the knowing can appreciate. Hipsters usually move on once music they deemed "hip" becomes popular. O0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. My favorite was the variety of food and objects thrown at ...By cbeach710Fast read for an academic; accessible for a general reader. Lots of entertaining excerpts from the past. My favorite was the variety of food and objects thrown at actors on stage by angry audience members.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Best bookBy CustomerProbably Levine's best books. The first chapter is my favorite in that it discusses the late 19th Century and how everyone (poor and rich) knew their Shakespeare. It was played in theaters as well as bars and halls. Easy to read and follow. Discovered it in grad school for American history.
