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Topic:religious practice
Showing 1 of 1 matching publications (200 total) · catalogue updated 2026-07-22
Journal ArticlePaywalled

To What Extent did Armenia Become Christian during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries? Performing Christianity among Armenian Elites

Cinemre, İlhami Tekin, 2024
Le Muséon, Vol. 137, No. 3-4, pp. 405–433 (Peeters); DOI 10.2143/MUS.137.3.3293894

Argues that the narrative of Armenia's Christian history has taken on a mythical character, a distortion made worse by the total absence of pagan Armenian historiographical sources. Everything surviving was written by Christians. The fourth and fifth centuries carry outsized weight in that narrative, but Cinemre questions how accurately Christian Armenian sources depict the actual Christianization. He asks specifically how deeply Christianity penetrated the Armenian elite class as opposed to being formally professed, examining the religious influence of Christianity in what was a multicultural, multi-religious environment.

Christianization of Armenianakharar elitesfourth-century Armeniareligious practiceArmenian historiography
EnglishRead To What Extent did Armenia Become Christian during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries? Performing Christianity among Armenian Elites (opens in a new tab)

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