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Traditionally, in the year 312, the Roman emperor Constantine experienced a "vision of the Cross" that led him to convert to Christianity and to defeat his last rival to the imperial throne; and, in 394, a divine wind carried the emperor Theodosius to victory at the battle of the Frigidus River. Other stories heralded the discovery of the True Cross by Constantine's mother, Helena, and the rise of a new kind of miracle-maker in the deserts of Egypt and Syria. These
miracle stories helped Christians understand the dizzying changes in their fortunes during the century. They also shed light on Christianity's conflict with other faiths and the darker turn it took in subsequent ages.
In A Century of Miracles, historian H. A. Drake explores the role miracle stories played in helping Christians, pagans, and Jews think about themselves and each other. These stories, he concludes, bolstered Christian belief that their god wanted the empire to be Christian. Most importantly, they help explain how, after a century of trumpeting the power of their god, Christians were able to deal with their failure to protect the city of Rome from a barbarian sack by the Gothic army of
Alaric in 410. Augustine's magnificent City of God eventually established a new theoretical basis for success, but in the meantime the popularity of miracle stories reassured the faithful - even when the miracles came to an end. A Century of Miracles provides an absorbing illumination of the pivotal fourth
century as seen through the prism of a complex and decidedly mystical phenomenon.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1: Historians and the Miraculous
- 2: Theodosius's Miracle
- 3: Constantine's Miracle
- 4: Miracle Doctors
- 5: The Miracle of the Cross
- 6: Jews in Miracles
- 7: Miracle in the Desert
- 8: Miracles on Trial
- 9: Failed Miracles
- 10: Alaric, Augustine, and the End of a Century of Miracles
- 11: Epilogue: The Story of Titus
- Abbreviations
- Primary Bibliography
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
H. A. Drake is Research Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of Constantine and the Bishops.
Summary
The fourth century of our common era began and ended with a miracle: Constantine's famous Vision of the Cross at one end and Theodosius' victory bearing prayer at the other. In this book, historian H. A. Drake shows how miracles in this century forever altered the way Christians, pagans, and Jews understood themselves and each other.
Additional text
With keen insight and indomitable good humor, Drake investigates the tumultuous period between Constantine ('the emperor who opened the door to Christianity') and Theodosius ('the one who slammed it shut on everybody else'). What factors fed the rise of the church? Christians, he urges, learned how to meaningfully -- and strategically -- narrate miracles. A pleasure to think with and a joy to read, A Century of Miracles belongs in your hands and on your bookshelf. Tolle, lege!
Report
A Century of Miracles is a pleasant read. Drake knows how to combine scholarly discussion with an accessible and at times punchy style ... and lively comparisons are made with modern issues. The miracle stories are contextualised with late antique history in general, discussions ranging from the relations between emperors and bishops; questioning the dichotomies of pagans and Christians; the problem of the Constantinian turn; the debates on Julian's School Law, and so on. Maijastina Kahlos, Gnomon
