The recruiting power of Christianity: the rise of a religion in the material culture of fourth-century Rome and its echo in history

Abstract

This collection of essays addresses the question of the recruiting power of Christianity within the Roman Empire, seen through the lens of the material and visual culture of the city of Rome. Its making was inspired by the exhibition 'Rome: The Dream of the Emperor Constantine' in the De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam (2015-2016). The subject of the exhibition was the breakthrough of Christianity as the dominant religion in the heterogeneous, dynamic and multifaceted city of Rome in Late Antiquity. It raised a number of questions related to the underlying issue regarding the appeal of the Christian religion in Roman society. This volume offers an in depth discussion of these questions by various experts.-The subjects covered are: - The role of the city of Rome as a stage of the process; - multi-religious dynamics; - the aesthetics of Roman non-Christian and Christian art; - the representation of the divine; - the durability of the attractive concepts of Early Christianity throughout history; - the invention of Late Antiquity and the appreciation of Early Christian art in a museological and scholarly context.