Abstract
The new monograph of Michel-Yves Perrin offers a new and original perspective on ancient Christianity by focusing on the involvement of the Christian laity in the doctrinal controversies about the Trinity, Christology or the Church (ca. 180 C.E. until 430 C.E.). Exploiting a rich dossier of sources, including episcopal letters, histories of the Church, sermons, acts of church councils and inscriptions, Perrin is able to analyse in great detail the various modes of involvement, their media, their causes and motives, and their limits. Taking his cue from an observation by Edward Gibbon, Perrin explores the hypothesis that the doctrinal controversies of late antique Christianity which effected the participation of larger parts of the emerging Christian society in public debates about doctrinal topics such as the doctrine of God can properly be understood as a case of the “democratization of culture” in Late Antiquity, as postulated by Santo Mazzarino in 1956.
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