Professional Documents
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DISRUP TION
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DISRUP TION
W hy Things Change
David Potter
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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197518823.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1: Constantine and the Christian Church 13
Christianity 13
Jesus and His Followers 14
The Spread of Christianity 17
Crisis and Transition 23
Diocletian and the Conversion of Constantine 27
Creating Imperial Christianity 34
Nicaea 36
Christian and Non-Christian 39
Constantine’s Legacy 42
Patterns of Change 45
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vii
Contents
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Contents
References 287
Index 319
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xi
ILLUSTR ATIONS
1.1. Constantine 32
1.2. Helena Augusta 44
2.1. Dome of the Rock (Shutterstock) 76
2.2. Coin of ‘Abd al-Malik (American Numismatic
Society) 78
3.1. Martin Luther (Shutterstock) 103
3.2. Charles V 108
3.3. Henry VIII 115
3.4. Thomas Cromwell 120
3.5. Mary Tudor 128
3.6. Elizabeth I 129
3.7. William of Orange (Shutterstock) 136
4.1. Rousseau 158
4.2. Washington lays down his command
(Yale University Art Gallery) 173
4.3. Robespierre 189
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xii
I l l u s t r at i o n s
xii
xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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xvi
Ac k n o w l e d g e m e n t s
xiv
1
Introduction
Introduction
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3
Introduction
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4
Introduction
Our first two studies will be ones in which the changes were dis-
ruptive, successful, and of continuing importance today. These are
the emergence of Christianity and Islam as world religions.
The transformation of Christianity from a relatively success-
ful minority cult into a world religion was accidental. The catalyst
was a Roman emperor, Constantine, who was trying to solve some
problems of his own. He needed to create a narrative to justify his
seizure of power at a time when traditional political ideologies had
been pretty thoroughly shattered by domestic instability and military
failure. He drew upon ideas that had been developed by some of his
recent predecessors as a way of creating a myth of legitimacy, chiefly
by claiming the favor of a particular divinity.
Constantine chose the Christian God as his protector for quite
specific reasons, then worked with a small number of Christians to
provide his new religion with an intellectual and institutional frame-
work that could shape the political discourse of his age. It is quite pos-
sible that, by the end of his life, Constantine envisaged the possibility
that his empire could become a predominantly Christian institution.
But the creation of the institutions that made this possible was a pro-
cess of trial and error. One very important point is that once he had
shaped the Christian movement into one that could achieve univer-
sal significance, Constantine showed considerable wisdom in leaving
the process of conversion to individual consciences.
The emergence of Islam underscores the importance of a num-
ber of factors we saw with the rise of Christianity. But there are
some important differences. Perhaps the most important was that
Constantine made use of ideas that had been in circulation for three
centuries after the career of Jesus. There was a long history of inter-
pretation that had already shaped the Christian community before
Constantine’s intervention. The rise of Islam, on the other hand, was
the product of the generation that followed upon those who had
known the Prophet themselves.
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Introduction
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Introduction
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1
Introduction
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Introduction
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13
Chapter 1
Constantine and
the Christian Church
CHRISTIANITY
Di s r u p t i o n : Why Thi n g s C h a n g e
Christianity replaced belief systems that had been in place for thou-
sands of years and were thought to have guaranteed the protection of
the Roman Empire by supernatural beings.
How did the followers of Christ change the world so profoundly?
How did the belief that the world was protected by many gods give
way to the belief that there was only one god. How did old ways of
measuring time, based on local traditions throughout the world, give
way to the single way many in the West now measure time? How
did old ways of thought pass through the crucible of Christianity to
shape the way we think about the world today? Even though Roman
emperors oversaw the rise of Christianity, our ideas about democ-
racy, the rights of the individual and the rule of law, and our traditions
of entertainment and rational thought were all shaped by Greek and
Roman thinkers of pre-Christian times. Indeed, the return of many of
these ideas, buried in the Middle Ages, will play crucial roles in our
third and fourth disruptions.
1. Our own 1 BCE/CE were established by the sixth-century CE theologian Dionysius Exiguus
on the basis of mathematical calculations that have no connection to Gospel narratives.
14
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Language: Finnish
Kirj.
PANAIT ISTRATI
Anna Silfverblad
SISÄLLYS:
Esipuhe
I. Stavro
II. Kira Kiralina
III. Dragomir
ESIPUHE
Romain Rolland.
Panait Istrati.
STAVRO
»Oli miten oli!» hän huudahti ääneensä. »Enhän enää ole lapsi!…
Ja luulenpa olevani oikeutettu ajattelemaan elämästä miten haluan».
»Adrien!…»
Hän kääntyi katsomaan. Penkillä, jonka ohi hän juuri oli kulkenut,
istui mies tupakoiden. Likinäköisyys ja hämärä estivät Adrienia
tuntemasta häntä. Mies ei noussut, ja Adrien lähestyi häntä hiukan
vastahakoisesti, ja huudahti sitten riemusta:
»Stavro!…»
»Niinpä niin, Adrien, minä maksan, jollen kuole. Ja jos kuolen, niin
maksaahan piru!…»
Stavro vastusteli:
»En tiedä».
*****
»Tarkoitatko totta?…»
*****