Dissertation Information for Lloyd Michael White NAME: - Lloyd Michael White
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Religious Studies
SCHOOL:
- Yale University (USA) (1982)
ADVISORS: - None COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected
Title: DOMUS ECCLESIAE--DOMUS DEI: ADAPTATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE SETTING FOR EARLY CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY
Abstract: "The earliest Christian communities met in small groups in the private homes of individual members. By the fourth century, however, the situation had changed; the basilica had developed into the normal setting assembly. Studies of the architectural history have demonstrated that basilical form did not evolve directly from the house, as has often been supposed. Rather, it was introduced into Christian architecture by the Emperor Constantine. For the pre-Constantinian period, therefore, the development of the domus ecclesiae becomes significant in its own right and on its own terms.
There was no ""normative "" type of Christian architecture in the domus ecclesiae. One finds that Christian communities adapted and renovated a variety of structures. The key, then, is the process of architectural adaptation and its attendant social factors, such as the practical economics of securing and renovating property.
The Christians were not the only religious communities in the Graeco-Roman world to adapt private domestic edifices for cultic use. Part I of the study contains a collection of the primary evidence for the domus ecclesiae, including archaeological, documentary (inscriptions and papyri), and literary sources. Also included are selected comparative data (archaeological and documentary) from Mithraism and Diaspora Judaism.
Part II of the study begins with a discussion of this wider social context. It seeks to discover the inner processes of architectural adaptation and the attendant social factors for private cultic assembly. The Christian evidence, finally, indicates a natural pattern of architectural adaptation through several stages--from the undistinctive house church came the domus ecclesiae by architectural adaptation. Subsequent tendencies toward enlargement and embellishment produced a stage which is here called the aula ecclesiae. Which such a heuristic model of stages, one recognizes that varying rates of development and diverse architectural forms were present in the early Christian period. These differences were conditioned by the social factors governing the situation of each Christian community. The most important factors were patronage, liturgical development, and the emerging self-definition of the Christians in relation to their buildings. The continued process of architectural adaptation and development reflects the changing status and social position of the Christian movement within the Roman world."
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MPACT Scores for Lloyd Michael White A = 0
C = 1
A+C = 1
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:25:59
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