Voting About God in Early Church Councils

Ramsay MacMullen (1928–2022), a widely regarded historian of Rome and early Christianity, was Dunham Professor Emeritus of History and Classics at Yale University. His many books include Corruption and the Decline of Rome; Roman Social Relations, 50 B.C. to A.D. 284; Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries; Christianizing the Roman Empire; and Romanization in the Time of Augustus.

Recipient of a Lifetime Award for Scholarly Distinction from the American Historical Association“Ramsay MacMullen has written another provocative and highly original book. He shows how Christian doctrine came to be decided by the democratic votes of bishops, and how the passions that this aroused all too often led to actual violence.”—Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford University“In MacMullen’s highly original book we get a sense of what it was like to be at an early church council, how arguments ebbed and flowed, how power was wielded, how participants were intimidated and inspired.”—David Brakke, Indiana University“By fine literary detective work, MacMullen reassembles the mobs of bishops who debated, voted, and rioted in the fifteen thousand or so early church councils, tracing the progress of Christianity from a raucous democracy to a harnessed hierarchy.”—Garry Wills, Northwestern University“Bloodthirsty bishops raining curses on their enemies storm through these pages, then step aside, humbled, allowing MacMullen’s cool, sane, and immensely learned analysis to enrich our understanding of the making and fragmenting of Roman imperial Christianity.”—James J. O’Donnell, author of Augustine: A New Biography