A conversation with Peter Heather (King's College, London) about his new book Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300 (New York: Knopf, 2023). Peter is one of the leading historians of the fall of the western Roman empire and the emergence there of the post-Roman, "barbarian" kingdoms. He now brings a revisionist approach to the emergence of the Church in (mostly western) Europe. This book covers a lot of ground, and so we focus on the early period, where his arguments affect the east too. We talk about the role of contingency, the near-miss of Homoian Christianity, the decisive role of secular rulers, and much more.
98. Egyptian hieroglyphs in late antiquity, with Jennifer Westerfeld
97. The remarkable world of hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria, with Tim Miller
96. Pre-Islamic Arabia, with Valentina Grasso
95. Rome and Byzantium in Heavy Metal music, with Jeremy Swist
94. What academic tenure does for you (yes, you!), with Jacques Berlinerblau
93. The afterlife of pagan inscriptions in Byzantium, with Anna Sitz
92. An insider’s guide to academic publishing, with Byzantine studies in mind, featuring Anna Henderson
91. Scavenging in the ruins of empire, with Robin Fleming
90. At the dawn of Byzantine Studies: Martin Crusius (1526-1607), with Richard Calis
89. The resilience and agency of rural communities, with Fotini Kondyli
88. Women’s labor, with Anna Kelley
87. Dragons! with Scott Bruce
86. How to organize a museum exhibition – and bring the Holy Land home, with Amanda Luyster
85. Lead mining and lead pollution in the Roman world, with Paul Stephenson
84. On writing narrative history, with guest-host Marion Kruse
83. Blinding as punishment and enforced disability, with Jake Ransohoff
82. What was First Iconoclasm about?, with Leslie Brubaker
81. Surviving the Mongol storm, with Nicholas Morton
80. Diagrams: from sundials to the schematics of the Trinity, with Linda Safran
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