Public Disputation, Power, and Social Order in Late Antiquity.

Abstract

This text explores the importance of verbal disputation in late antiquity, offering a socio-historical and cultural examination of the philosophical and theological controversies. It shows how public disputation changed with the advent of Christianity from a means of discovering truth and self-identification to a form of social competition and winning over an opponent. It also demonstrates how the reception and practice of public debate, like other forms of competition in late antiquity, were closely tied to underlying notions of authority, community and social order.