A.D. 381

By Charles Freeman,

Book cover of A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

Book description

In A.D. 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked A.D. 381 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The year 381 marked the point at which the new Roman emperor, Theodosius, convened the Church council that outlawed Arianism and made Jesus’ role as God incarnate, the Second Person of the Trinity, an essential part of Christian orthodoxy. For the historian Charles Freeman, this noxious combination of secular and ecclesiastical power stands as the origin of the development he described earlier in The Closing of the Western Mind (Anchor, 2005). Freeman’s analysis of the “Greek-ification” of Christian thinking is very sharp, and he tells the story of Theodosius well, even if he sometimes seems to be reading elements of…

Want books like A.D. 381?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like A.D. 381.

Browse books like A.D. 381

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the history of Christianity, Christianity, and the Middle Ages?

Christianity 644 books
The Middle Ages 416 books