Reviews for Modern algebra

The average rating for Modern algebra based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-29 00:00:00 Will Bodenheimer This is a tiny little book divided into three essays and is an easy read in an afternoon for those somewhat initiated in the subject. It is important to point out that these are academic articles, and this is not a general history of the period with a focus on Christianization. Those unacquainted with the basics of this period may find too many unfamiliar names being tossed around to get to the real meat of this book. The first essay "Christianization: Narratives and Process" discusses how Christianity was melded by and how it reshaped fundamental ideas of how the universe functioned, and how this would vary between the "Eusebeian" east and the "Augustinian" west during the medieval period. He explains how Christians understood paganism and authority, and how pagans reacted to the success of the Christians. The scope is wide, the writing is masterful, and Peter Brown's expertise on the subject ensures that this particular essay is an important one. The second essay deals with just how far intolerance can go, and he argues that the traditional explanation of a rather intolerant post-Constantinian empire is not entirely accurate. He also explores the question of just what intolerance was, and argues quite convincingly that the means of intolerance was the important factor. Paideia played a major role in this, and this entire chapter feels like a very succinct summary of Brown's Power & Persuasion Late Antiquity: Towards A Christian Empire. The final essay is an expansion on Brown's seminal "Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Antiquity" article published in 1971 in the Journal of Roman Studies. He comments on criticism of his earlier article and refines the points made by making some concise and important arguments on how the late antique holy men were viewed and how they related to paganism. I'm not totally sure how he arrives at the conclusion that Symeon Stylites was accepting the surrender of the pagan gods, but the salient points of the article remain clear enough, and it remains a fine addition to the original article and a good conclusion to this little book.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-09-10 00:00:00 Samantha Goldsberry This slim volume brings together three lectures given by Brown on the subject of the "Christianisation" of the later Roman Empire. Brown looks at the symbolic systems in use by the Roman elites, conceptions of authority, and the roles of Christian holy men, and challenges the neat and accepted historical narrative of Christianity triumphing over and absorbing a moribund paganism. Rather, he shows a late antique world in which Christians and pagans negotiated a compromise between the new faith and long-standing ways of seeing the world, and often possessed multiple, overlapping world views. That compromise, moreover, was often not worked out merely in terms of religious syncretism, but in terms of power'the Christian holy man derived his power not because he appropriated pagan religious forms, but because of how he presented himself as a parallel of Roman secular authority'the administrator, the paterfamilias. Brown also cautions against using the rhetoric of philosophers and theologians as a means of assessing the relative power, or lack thereof, of the two major religious groupings. He points out that such groups were elites, often deliberately withdrawn from the concerns of the secular mundus and thus cannot be taken as representative of how the majority of people conceived of their faith. As erudite and as beautifully written as always, Authority and the Sacred is perhaps not one of Brown's most groundbreaking of books, but it is still well worth the read if one has even the most passing of interests in the subject.