Robin Whelan, "Serving the Christian State in Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

How did the state become Christian in late antiquity? Many scholars

have traced the Christianization of the Roman world in the centuries

following the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312 CE. Robin

Whelan, however, turns his attention away from the usual suspects in

such accounts-emperors, empresses, bishops, ascetics, and other holy

people-to consider a surprisingly understudied set of late ancient

Christians: those who served the state as courtiers, bureaucrats, and

governors. By tracing the requirements of regimes, the expectations of

subjects, and patterns of engagement with churches and churchmen, he

argues that that those who served the state in late antiquity could be

seen-and indeed, could see themselves-as distinctly Christian authority

figures-just as much as the emperors and kings whom they served, and the