Mike Norris
- School: Classics
- Supervisor: Dr Aude Doody
Cosmology and Christology in the 4th century Latin west
In the 4th century AD, the Christian church was in the ascendant. Despite many difficulties and periods of persecution, it had spread throughout the Roman empire and beyond. With the accession of Constantine as emperor, it began to enjoy imperial favour and soon became, in effect, the state religion. My research focuses on the period after Constantine in the mid to late 4th century. It looks at the intersection between Church teaching and Greco-Roman cosmology in the Latin west during this period. Using sources such as Ambrose of Milan and Zeno of Verona, the research will look at the ways in which traditional beliefs and theories of cosmology were opposed, adapted, and developed by Christian teachers. It will identify aspects of cosmology that were not changed and give reasons for this. Concepts such as the cosmological principle and a universe bounded or unbounded in space and/or time, insofar as they resonate with ideas in Late Antiquity, will be explored.