Review: The Donatist Schism. Controversy and Contexts, edited by Richard Miles

Abstract

Richard Miles, ed. The Donatist Schism. Controversy and Contexts . Translated Texts for Historians, Contexts 2. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016. 394 pp. xi. ISBN: 9781781382813. $120.00. For half a century after its publication, in 1952, William Frend's The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa remained the standard narrative on the late antique North African Christian controversy. Among the explosion of recent scholarship on late antique North Africa and the Donatist Schism in particular, Brent Shaw's monumental and magisterial Sacred Violence. African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine (2011) has had the most significant impact on revising Frend's traditional narrative. The book currently under review, itself revisionist, challenges several fundamental assumptions about the Donatist conflict, and its impressive roster of scholars systematically engages with Sacred Violence throughout, challenging its argument in numerous instances. This outstanding and important collection of studies is therefore an appropriate tribute to Brent Shaw, to whom it is suitably dedicated. Based on a 2014 conference held in Sydney, the volume includes fifteen chapters, three of them introductory, followed by twelve studies on a specific topic or theme of relevance to the Donatist Schism; there is also an excellent Bibliography and a useful Index. Following a general introduction by the volume's editor, Richard Miles (“The Donatist Controversy: Parallel Histories, Multiple Narratives”), John Whitehouse presents an overview of events (“The Course of the Donatist Schism in Late Roman North Africa”) as well as of its main scholarly interpretations (“The Scholarship of the Donatist Controversy”) which concludes with a list of “Key Themes for Future Research” (49–53). Both of Whitehouse's chapters are useful introductions to the topic, particularly for students and readers unfamiliar with the details of this religious controversy, and especially considering that the following chapters mainly address readers familiar with the topic. In addition to outlining the key historical moments of this controversy and its scholarship, Whitehouse introduces key vocabulary and concepts, surveys the main sources, and …