Drawing on little-used sources in Syriac, once the lingua franca of the Middle East, Philip Wood examines how, at the close of the Roman Empire, Christianity carried with it new foundation myths for the peoples of the Near East that transformed their self-identity and their relationships with their rulers. This cultural independence was followed by a more radical political philosophy that dared to criticize the emperor and laid the seeds for the blending of religious and ethnic identity that we see in the Middle East today.
An examination of how, at the close of the Roman Empire, Christianity influenced the political and social philosophy of the peoples of the Near East, laying the groundwork for the blending of religious and ethnic identity that we see in the Middle East today.
Things are often more complicated than they may seem, and this is certainly also true for the phenomenon Wood has been studying in such a brilliant way.
