Aleksey Dmitrievich Panteleev PhD in History, associate professor, Saint Petersburg State University, Institute of History (7/9 Universitetskaya nab., Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia)
a.panteleev@spbu.ru
Panteleev A. D. New Approaches to the Study of Apostasy and Religious Mobility in Roman Empire, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], pp. 374–399.
doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2025-14-338-368
Language: Russian
This article analyzes new approaches to the study of apostasy and attempts to determine which of them are applicable to the analysis of religious mobility in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD, primarily for the study of the history of early Christianity. Our study is based on a recently published collective monograph devoted to the problems of apostasy from various religious teachings and religion in general (Handbook of Leaving Religion / Ed. by Daniel Enstedt, Goeran Larsson, Teemu Mantsinen. Leiden: Brill, 2020). Several preliminary comments are made on terminology, sources, and fundamental differences between the beginning of the new era and the turn of the 20th–21st centuries, then historical, geographical and demographic, statistical, sociological, psychological, narrative and autobiographical, media and communication approaches are sequentially considered. The main problem with applying these methods lies in the available sources on apostates in the early centuries: about a dozen works mentioning apostates, most of which are limited to brief condemnations of such individuals. The goal of church authors was not to describe or describe apostates, but to combat the phenomenon of apostasy itself and discourage fellow believers from even considering it. There is little insight into the mentality of those who fell away; at best, we can learn how their former comrades spoke of them. Nevertheless, some of the observations made using these methods are undoubtedly interesting. In our view, the most promising approaches are the sociological, historical, geographical, and narrative ones.
Key words: early Christianity, Roman Empire, persecutions, apostasy, hagiography, historical research methods
URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/panteleev2025-en/
