Some Christian interpretations of the Roman empire

Abstract

Edmund Burke once compared the impact of circumstance upon ideas to the way in which rays of light are refracted in atmosphere. Burke, Reflections on the French Revolution, (Everyman ed.) London, 1910, p.59. The study of christian interpretations of the Roman empire provides almost ideal material for an essay in the analysis of this process of refraction, of the dialectic between a changing historical situation and a set of political traditions, presuppositions and implications. The corpus of patristic literature dealing with the empire is of manageable proportions, and has been little studied from a purely political viewpoint. Moreover, its temporal remoteness make perspective, if not detachment, comparatively easy to attain.