Shaw Brent D. Sacred violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the age of Augustine

Cambridge University Press, 2011. — 931 p. — ISBN: 978-0-521-19605-5.One route to understanding the nature of specifically religious violence is the study of past conflicts. Distinguished ancient historian Brent D. Shaw provides a new analysis of the intense sectarian battles between the Catholic and Donatist churches of North Africa in late antiquity, in which Augustine played a central role as Bishop of Hippo. The development and deployment of images of hatred, including that of the heretic, the pagan, and the Jew, and the modes by which these were most effectively employed, including the oral world of the sermon, were critical to promoting acts of violence. Shaw explores how the emerging ecclesiastical structures of the Christian church, on one side, and those of the Roman imperial state, on the other, interacted to repress or excite violent action. Finally, the meaning and construction of the acts themselves, including the Western idea of suicide, are shown to emerge from the conflict itself.List of abbreviations pageThis terrible custom
Church of the traitors
A poisonous brood of vipers
Archives of memory
The city of denial
Ravens feeding on death
Little foxes, evil women
Guardians of the people
In the house of discipline
Sing a new song
Kings of this world
We choose to stand
Athletes of death
Bad boys
Men of blood
Divine winds
So what?
Appendix A: Bishops and bishoprics in Africa: the numbers
Appendix B: Origins of the division: chronology
Appendix C: The Catholic conference of 348
Appendix D: The Edict of Unity and the Persecution of 347
Appendix E: The mission of Paul and Macarius
Appendix F: Historicalctions: interpreting the circumcellions
Appendix G: The archaeology of suicide
Appendix H: African sermons