ABSTRACT
Up to now, the framework of the Roman Empire and its cultural and political forces have been the context we have concentrated on to discover the patterns of the passive and active contextualisation of Christianity to the changes of the fourth century. Dominant factors were the official recognition of the Christian religion by the Roman Empire and the increasing interferences of the imperial court in the matters of the Church. We saw how the latter gradually provoked resistance and the emergence of self-consciousness among the Church leadership. We also studied the impact of the close connection with the State and with the classical culture on Christian theological thought. It is now time to look at the repercussion of this close connection of Christianity with one specific political and cultural entity – however ‘universal’ and widespread it was in the world of the time – on Christian communities and their contextualisation outside the Roman territories. After that, we have to examine some repercussions of that close connection on spiritual life inside the Roman world and the official Church, viz., on the flourishing of monastic life and on the Christian life and worship of common people. These three subjects will form the successive sections of this final chapter.
