Church Law and Historiography in Late Antiquity

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K13556
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Europe and America
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: TANAKA Hajime 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (50647906)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 西洋古代史 / キリスト教 / 歴史叙述 / 教会法 / 文化変容 / 都市 / 神話

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When Christianity became an authorized religion of the later Roman Empire, Christians were confronted with a new demand of social roles within the empire. In this project, I investigated Church Histories and Canon law collections to fathom the extent to which Christian Church had adjusted itself to a new role in the Roman Empire. Church Histories were written under the influence of doctorinal disputes on the orthodoxy. In this political context, I ascertained that some technics of classic historiography were deployed to enhance the legitimacy of a party. Furthermore, the investigation of Canon collections shows that in the fourth to fifth centuries, Christians amalgamated their resolutions with those of the preceding orthodox councils while in the later period they got more aware of individualities of church councils which had determined canons. This implies that the doctrinal concern of the early centuries ceded to the demand of reference in the daily practice.

Free Research Field

人文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

広範な支配領域を誇った古代ローマ帝国内には、共通の教養としての古典古代的伝統に加え、多様な在地文化の伝統があった。これらの文化が、キリスト教を公式に採用するようになったローマ帝国のもとで受け継がれ、変容していった過程は、２０世紀末以来隆盛を誇る古代末期研究の重大な研究対象となっている。本研究は、教会史叙述、教会規定の編纂過程を特に大きな着目点として、その実相を明らかにした。この研究の成果は古代、中世といった古典的な時代区分で分けられがちな時代についての連続性の側面を明らかにするとともに、地中海周辺地域の文化的共通性や地方ごとの特殊性を浮かび上がらせることにつながるものである。