The Effect of the Fall of Rome on the Church

Fowden, Garth. "The Last Days of Constantine: Oppositional Versions and Their

Influence." Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 84 (Nov., 1994): 146-170.

Garth discusses Constantine's conversion and its historical narrative as a piece of Christian propaganda and describes how oppositional versions of the Emperor's late baptism and death helped shape and mold the "orthodox" narrative of events that became accepted as Christianity became more and more institutionalized. The purpose of Garth's article is to cast doubt upon the authenticity of the conversion of Constantine and to promote the oppositional viewpoint that Constantine was not really a Christian at heart. While Garth does provide some evidence for these claims, he ignores other evidence that points to the contrary and when he does address it he does so only with the purpose of evincing skepticism.

2.

Ando, Clifford. "Decline, Fall, and Transformation." Journal of Late Antiquity, vol. 1,

no. 1 (Spring, 2008): 31-60.

Ando describes the effect of the fall of the Western Empire on the early Church and how the fall of the Empire and the rise of the Church were manifested in histories and commentaries from that day and age. The article describes the citizens of Rome throughout the era of the Fall as more like "half-citizens" who were not really fully Roman in the same sense of the classical Roman prior to the birth of Christ.[footnoteRef:1] Ando's main point is that the fall of the Western Empire was more like a transition from an ambiguous state in which the cultural context of the Empire was changing amid external and internal socio-political pressures. [1: Clifford Ando, "Decline, Fall and Transformation," Journal of Late Antiquity, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring, 2008), 31.]

3.

Meyendorff, John. "Byzantine Views of Islam." Dumbarton Oaks Papers, vol. 18

(1964): 113-132.