Peter Brown

Peter Brown is an Irish historian whose scholarship reshaped the study of late antiquity and early Christianity, especially through work on sainthood, asceticism, and religious change.

Late antiquity: The period of transformation between the Roman Empire’s later centuries and the early medieval world. Brown helped establish this period as a distinctive era rather than a simple decline from classical antiquity.
The World of Late Antiquity: Peter Brown’s 1971 book interpreting late antiquity as a period of cultural and religious transformation. This landmark book presents his influential account of change from the second to the eighth century.
Oxford University: A university in Oxford, England, founded in the medieval period and among the world’s oldest universities. Brown studied history at Oxford, where his early academic formation began.
Henri Pirenne: A Belgian historian known for a thesis linking the end of Mediterranean unity to the rise of Islam. Brown’s account of late antiquity offers a different emphasis on gradual cultural and religious transformation.
Early Christianity: The religious movement and communities that developed from the first century onward around the teachings of Jesus. Brown’s scholarship traces how Christian beliefs and institutions took shape within late Roman society.
The Cult of the Saints: Peter Brown’s 1981 study of the emergence and social role of the cult of Christian saints. It shows how Brown connected sacred power and holy people with local communities and social structures.
Arnaldo Momigliano: An Italian-born historian of ancient historiography and the classical world. Momigliano’s scholarship and criticism influenced Brown’s intellectual development.
Evelyn Waugh: An English novelist whose works include the 1930 novel Vile Bodies and the 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. Brown’s father was the Irish engineer and writer Peter Brown; he is distinct from the novelist Evelyn Waugh, often encountered in discussions of the era.
Roman Empire: An ancient state centered on Rome that ruled territories around the Mediterranean and beyond. The empire supplies the political and social setting for much of Brown’s historical work.
The Body and Society: Peter Brown’s history of sexual renunciation and ascetic ideals in early Christianity. The book applies his social and cultural approach to changing ideas about the body and celibacy.

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