Being Christian in Vandal Africa investigates conflicts over Christian orthodoxy in the Vandal kingdom, the successor to Roman rule in North Africa, ca. 439 to 533 c.e. Exploiting neglected texts, author Robin Whelan exposes a sophisticated culture of disputation between Nicene ("Catholic") and Homoian ("Arian") Christians and explores their rival claims to political and religious legitimacy. These contests-sometimes violent-are key to understanding the wider and much-debated issues of identity and state formation in the post-imperial West.
List of Illustrations and Tables Acknowledgments Time Line Introduction PART I. CONTESTING ORTHODOXY 1. African Churches 2. In Dialogue with Heresy: Christian Polemical Literature 3. "What Th ey Are to Us, We Are to Them": Homoian Orthodoxy and Homoousian Heresy 4. Ecclesiastical Histories: Reinventing the Arians PART II. ORTHODOXY AND SOCIETY 5. Exiles on Main Street: Nicene Bishops and the Vandal Court 6. Christianity, Ethnicity, and Society 7. Elite Christianity, Political Service, and Social Prestige Epilogue: Homoian Christianity in the Post-Imperial West Bibliography Index