Speaking Evil: Communicating the Devil, the Damned and the Dangerous in Late-Antique milieux

Abstract

Late-antique Chistian preachers developed and communicated ideas about evil in their sermons to multiple congregations in Italy, North Africa and Gaul, c.350-c.450. This era witnessed Christian ecclesiasts draw from traditional discourses and those of their contemporary environment in order to address very diverse audiences across the Mediterranean. This was the moment when ecclesiasts began to disseminate early Christian notions of evil to wider audiences. This process of promulgation necessitated unconscious and acknowledged adaptation of earlier ideas in order that they be rendered comprehensible both for those communicating them and their audiences. Preachers employed the ‘evil tool’. The tone, examples and manner in which they explained ideas about Christian evil to their audiences reflect their personal characters and milieux. Late-antique sermons serve as an effective source in order to evaluate the manner in which elite ecclesiasts’ ideas about evil were adopted and adapted by and for dialogue within heterogeneous communities. They can be interpreted to highlight the dissemination of the idea of evil in late antiquity within the broader framework of how theological ideas travelled. The homiletic genre enables the analyst to interpret late-antique conceptions of evil and the broader framework of communicating these and other contemporary notions. Late-antique preachers adopted and adapted the traditions inherent in their milieux in order to formulate methods most acceptable for fulfilling their duties to educate and regulate their hearers with the aim of ensuring the eternal salvation of the latter. Ecclesiasts communicated the idea of evil in particular ways within the contemporary climate of religious upheaval; they adapted the alternate religious traditions of the late-antique Mediterranean to present evil to their audiences within this environment. This analysis highlights both the notion of evil in the late-antique West and also the manner in which preachers engaged with their peers and audiences in these intermingled milieux. It also highlights what these ideas entailed for each rhetor. Ecclesiasts utilised and communicated ideas about evil in particular manners to respond to local heritage and Christian traditions as well as their own immediate contexts. A new emphasis on orthodoxy and consistency in Christian belief along with an impetus toward comprehensible and functional pastoral instruction were notable features of the fifth-century Mediterranean milieux. The effect of these developments altered how fifth-century Christians experienced and understood their world and how they lived their lives yet always reflect dichotomous categorisation of good and evil. Any behaviour receives its justification on the foundation of love.