LITERARY GENRE OR RELIGIOUS APATHY? THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN SECULAR WRITING IN THE LATE ANTIQUE EAST

Abstract

John Malalas, author of a Christian world chronicle compiled initially ca. 532 and completed ca. 565, shows only token interest in the Christian trappings of the world around him: he records items of ecclesiastical bureaucracy such as councils and the election or deposition of patriarchs. Of far more real concern to him are rituals and strands of belief that are barely Christian, as shown by his references to ‘mystikoi’ and his millennial preoccupations.