Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity - Writings of an Unexpected Emperor

Analyses the ideological writings of a scholarly and unusual Byzantine emperor dedicated to distinctively Orthodox Christian principles.

List of contents

1. The reign of Leo VI; 2. Romans imitating Saracens?; 3. The Byzantine Christian approach to war; 4. The ideal Christian general; 5. A new Solomon; 6. Imperial sacrality in action; 7. Leo VI as homilist; 8. Byzantines as 'chosen people'; 9. Byzantine Christian statecraft.

About the author

Meredith L. D. Riedel is an Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity at Duke University, North Carolina. She is a historian of early medieval Byzantine political thought and comparative religion, and is currently writing a book on the first five hundred years of interaction between Byzantium and the Caliphate. She serves on the Governing Body of the Byzantine Studies Association of North America.

Summary

Examines political strategies employed by Leo VI in his writings and the role of religion as a carrier of communal identity in Byzantium. Highlights differences between Christianity and Islam, deployment of Christian identity by the Byzantine emperor, and the role of religion during the heyday of history's longest-lived Christian empire.

Product details

• Authors: RIEDE MEREDITH L. D, Meredith L. D. Riedel, Meredith L. D. (Duke University Riedel
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2018
• EAN: 9781107053076
• ISBN: 978-1-107-05307-6
• No. of pages: 236
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > Art, literature > Biographies, autobiographies; Biography: literary, HISTORY / Europe / General, Social & cultural history, Political leaders & leadership, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Social and cultural history, c 500 to c 1000 CE, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Biography: writers, Political leaders and leadership, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE, Byzantine Empire, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches, Orthodox & Oriental Churches