caa a22 4500 378892754 CHVBK 20180305123459.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161128e200410 xx s 000 0 ger 10.1515/BYZS.2004.239 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)gruyter-10.1515/BYZS.2004.239 Herrin Judith London Geoffrey S. Nathan, The family in late antiquity. The rise of Christianity and the endurance of tradition [Elektronische Daten] [Judith Herrin] As the family is one of the few structures that survives from ancient times to the present and looks set to continue for quite some time to come, it attracts the attention of every new generation of sociologists, historians and economists alike. From Engels to Herlihy, Goody and Moxnes, the family has been held responsible for the development of private property, for forms of social organisation and the oppression of women. Those interested in the period of late antiquity ask a key question: what happened to the family when polytheist views of the immortal gods were gradually replaced by a belief in Christianity? Was the family changed, and in what ways, by what is often perceived as a fundamental shift in religious understanding? Or did the development of Christian institutions merely confirm tendencies, which may be observed in the late Roman period? In his book Geoffrey S. Nathan brings theories of the family to bear on this complex problem. The introduction surveys the traditional understanding of what makes a family, as well as more recent models, setting the scene for two traditions, of which the more enduring one is not Christian. With a structure of well-planned chapters, on marriage and alternatives to marriage, children, slaves and extended family, each marked by sensible headings and conclusions, this should be a most informative presentation. But it fails to convince. © 2004 by K. G. Saur Verlag GmbH, München und Leipzig Byzantinische Zeitschrift Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG 97/1(2004-10), 239-240 0007-7704 97:1<239 2004 97 BYZS https://doi.org/10.1515/BYZS.2004.239 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1515/BYZS.2004.239 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Herrin Judith London NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Byzantinische Zeitschrift Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG 97/1(2004-10), 239-240 0007-7704 97:1<239 2004 97 BYZS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-gruyter