Joseph Bryant | University of Toronto (original) (raw)
Papers by Joseph Bryant
Athens Journal of History, 2023
In Part I of this study, the Decian Persecution and the crisis of mass apostasy it provoked withi... more In Part I of this study, the Decian Persecution and the crisis of mass apostasy it provoked within mainstream Christianity was identified as a "turning point" moment in the history of the ancient Hellenistic-Roman world. A negotiated decision by moderate and pragmatic bishops to overturn the established ban on the pardoning of apostates incited a major schismatic rupture, as disciplinary hardliners and traditionalists promptly formed an oppositional communion dedicated to full compliance with the purity requirements contained in scripture. Here, in Part II, we will show how Catholics and Katharoi were caught up in a "schismogenic" process of bilateral transformation, their identities adaptively refashioned over the course of intense polemical struggle that had the decisive effect of accelerating and deepening the Catholic embrace of penitential lenity. Thus fortified by a new pastoral-disciplinary regime that restored grievous sinners to sanctity and brought the prospects of eternal salvation within reach of those less capable of sustained zeal and holiness, the Church/Orthodox Church would experience significant membership growth in ensuing decades, setting the stage for the fateful compact with Empire that lay in its future.
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Athens Journal of History, 2023
To be presented is a two-phased historical-sociological study of "turning points" (Part I) and al... more To be presented is a two-phased historical-sociological study of "turning points" (Part I) and altered "trajectories" (Part II). In the mid-third century, two successive persecutions of Christians would be unleashed by the emperors Decius and Valerian. Those coercive efforts at suppressing the offending "superstitio" were empire-wide in scale, unprecedented in planned efficiency. Under Decius, a universally mandated requirement to offer sacrifices to the gods was backed by monitoring commissions and compliance certificates that featured confirmations of accomplishment and, most ominously, sworn, signed, and notarized declarations of lifelong religious orthopraxy. Great numbers of Christians complied with those directives-either by offering the demonic sacrifices outright or by securing fraudulent certificates attesting to having done so-actions that voided, through idolatrous trespass, the "celestial promise" of eternal life that had been gifted in the baptismal rite of spiritual rebirth. Efforts at resolving the ensuing crisis of mass apostasy split the mainstream Church into competing factions of disciplinary hardliners who resisted, and pragmatic reformers who endorsed the readmission of apostates. Drawing upon Schismogenesis and Sect-Church theories, I examine the course of this schism-doctrinally and demographically-to show how the socially induced and expedited trend towards penitential lenity, as adopted by the majority Catholic variant, facilitated the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire. The persecution and the schism it provoked carried greater world-historical significance than has hitherto been realized.
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Faculti.Net, 2021
Interview on Faculti.Net, June 27, 2021. Joseph M. Bryant provides a historical-comparative ana... more Interview on Faculti.Net, June 27, 2021. Joseph M. Bryant provides a historical-comparative analysis of imperial rulers King Ashoka and the Roman emperor Constantine, utilizing the “Mega Actor” concept (duration: 50:30 minutes)
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![Research paper thumbnail of Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece: A Sociology of Greek Ethics From Homer to the Epicureans and Stoics [Epilogue]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/3668899/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society , 2011
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History of Political Thought, Jan 1, 1990
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The Sociological Review, Jan 1, 1990
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States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives, 2019
At critical phases in their early development, both Buddhism and Christianity received the unexpe... more At critical phases in their early development, both Buddhism and Christianity received the unexpected and substantial patronage of imperial rulers, whose ideological advocacy and material benefactions dramatically advanced their socio-historical trajectories. The parallels between King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty (r.269-232 BCE) and the Roman emperor Constantine (r.306-337 CE) have oft been noted, though rarely with sustained consideration of the strikingly different historical legacies their actions initiated. Ashoka's efforts in support of Buddhism were crucial in raising it to social prominence and facilitating its geo-cultural diffusion across South and East Asia. The distinctive concordance of state and religion he fashioned, however, was neither institutionally reinforced nor sustained by his dynastic successors. Buddhism not only would not become a 'state religion' in the land of its origins, it would steadily yield ground to a resurgent and reformed Brahmanical Hinduism in the aftermath of the Mauryan empire's demise (c.185 BCE). Constantine's embrace of Christianity, in contrast, established both the ideological and the organizational basis for an enduring state-church alliance and the imminent consolidation of a Christian empire and civilization. I will attempt to account for these divergent outcomes by utilizing the an underutilized analytical category in historical-comparative analysis: the "Mega Actor" concept.
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Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2006
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The Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens …, Jan 1, 2008
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An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann
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British Journal of Sociology, Jan 1, 1994
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British Journal of Sociology, Jan 1, 2000
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Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Jan 1, 2004
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Method and Theory in the Study of Religion , Jan 1, 2000
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Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006
Interviewed for an article by DAVID GLENN, discussing Economistic and Rational Choice approaches ... more Interviewed for an article by DAVID GLENN, discussing Economistic and Rational Choice approaches to the Study of Religion.
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The Social World, Fourth Edition, 1996
A short Introduction to Sociological Theory, surveying Classical and Contemporary contributions.
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Athens Journal of History, 2023
In Part I of this study, the Decian Persecution and the crisis of mass apostasy it provoked withi... more In Part I of this study, the Decian Persecution and the crisis of mass apostasy it provoked within mainstream Christianity was identified as a "turning point" moment in the history of the ancient Hellenistic-Roman world. A negotiated decision by moderate and pragmatic bishops to overturn the established ban on the pardoning of apostates incited a major schismatic rupture, as disciplinary hardliners and traditionalists promptly formed an oppositional communion dedicated to full compliance with the purity requirements contained in scripture. Here, in Part II, we will show how Catholics and Katharoi were caught up in a "schismogenic" process of bilateral transformation, their identities adaptively refashioned over the course of intense polemical struggle that had the decisive effect of accelerating and deepening the Catholic embrace of penitential lenity. Thus fortified by a new pastoral-disciplinary regime that restored grievous sinners to sanctity and brought the prospects of eternal salvation within reach of those less capable of sustained zeal and holiness, the Church/Orthodox Church would experience significant membership growth in ensuing decades, setting the stage for the fateful compact with Empire that lay in its future.
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Athens Journal of History, 2023
To be presented is a two-phased historical-sociological study of "turning points" (Part I) and al... more To be presented is a two-phased historical-sociological study of "turning points" (Part I) and altered "trajectories" (Part II). In the mid-third century, two successive persecutions of Christians would be unleashed by the emperors Decius and Valerian. Those coercive efforts at suppressing the offending "superstitio" were empire-wide in scale, unprecedented in planned efficiency. Under Decius, a universally mandated requirement to offer sacrifices to the gods was backed by monitoring commissions and compliance certificates that featured confirmations of accomplishment and, most ominously, sworn, signed, and notarized declarations of lifelong religious orthopraxy. Great numbers of Christians complied with those directives-either by offering the demonic sacrifices outright or by securing fraudulent certificates attesting to having done so-actions that voided, through idolatrous trespass, the "celestial promise" of eternal life that had been gifted in the baptismal rite of spiritual rebirth. Efforts at resolving the ensuing crisis of mass apostasy split the mainstream Church into competing factions of disciplinary hardliners who resisted, and pragmatic reformers who endorsed the readmission of apostates. Drawing upon Schismogenesis and Sect-Church theories, I examine the course of this schism-doctrinally and demographically-to show how the socially induced and expedited trend towards penitential lenity, as adopted by the majority Catholic variant, facilitated the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire. The persecution and the schism it provoked carried greater world-historical significance than has hitherto been realized.
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Faculti.Net, 2021
Interview on Faculti.Net, June 27, 2021. Joseph M. Bryant provides a historical-comparative ana... more Interview on Faculti.Net, June 27, 2021. Joseph M. Bryant provides a historical-comparative analysis of imperial rulers King Ashoka and the Roman emperor Constantine, utilizing the “Mega Actor” concept (duration: 50:30 minutes)
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Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society , 2011
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History of Political Thought, Jan 1, 1990
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The Sociological Review, Jan 1, 1990
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States and Nations, Power and Civility: Hallsian Perspectives, 2019
At critical phases in their early development, both Buddhism and Christianity received the unexpe... more At critical phases in their early development, both Buddhism and Christianity received the unexpected and substantial patronage of imperial rulers, whose ideological advocacy and material benefactions dramatically advanced their socio-historical trajectories. The parallels between King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty (r.269-232 BCE) and the Roman emperor Constantine (r.306-337 CE) have oft been noted, though rarely with sustained consideration of the strikingly different historical legacies their actions initiated. Ashoka's efforts in support of Buddhism were crucial in raising it to social prominence and facilitating its geo-cultural diffusion across South and East Asia. The distinctive concordance of state and religion he fashioned, however, was neither institutionally reinforced nor sustained by his dynastic successors. Buddhism not only would not become a 'state religion' in the land of its origins, it would steadily yield ground to a resurgent and reformed Brahmanical Hinduism in the aftermath of the Mauryan empire's demise (c.185 BCE). Constantine's embrace of Christianity, in contrast, established both the ideological and the organizational basis for an enduring state-church alliance and the imminent consolidation of a Christian empire and civilization. I will attempt to account for these divergent outcomes by utilizing the an underutilized analytical category in historical-comparative analysis: the "Mega Actor" concept.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2006
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The Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens …, Jan 1, 2008
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An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann
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British Journal of Sociology, Jan 1, 1994
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British Journal of Sociology, Jan 1, 2000
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Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Jan 1, 2004
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Method and Theory in the Study of Religion , Jan 1, 2000
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Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006
Interviewed for an article by DAVID GLENN, discussing Economistic and Rational Choice approaches ... more Interviewed for an article by DAVID GLENN, discussing Economistic and Rational Choice approaches to the Study of Religion.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The Social World, Fourth Edition, 1996
A short Introduction to Sociological Theory, surveying Classical and Contemporary contributions.
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In his fitting tribute and informative review of the performing career of Charles Rosen, "Versati... more In his fitting tribute and informative review of the performing career of Charles Rosen, "Versatile, Fearless Charles Rosen at the Piano" [NYR, April 7], Robert Winter offers an implausible and incorrect account of the recording history of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit (1908). He credits Walter Gieseking with the first commercial recording in 1937, Leonard Pennario with the second in 1952, and Rosen with the third in 1959. As my own limited CD collection features stellar performances of the Gaspard by the legendary French pianists Robert Casadesus (1899-1972), in a 1951 recording, Marcelle Meyer (1897-1958), from 1954, and Samson François (1924-1970), from 1958, it seems clear that Rosen cannot be credited as one of the recording pioneers of Ravel's great composition. Perhaps the first internationally renowned performer to record the Gaspard-discounting Ravel's own Duo-Art piano roll of 1922was the celebrated Russian virtuoso Mark Hambourg, also in 1922. For a fuller listing of historic recordings of this and other compositions by Ravel, I highly recommend Arbie Orenstein's illuminating study, Ravel: Man and Musician (1991, updated edition).
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