Paul Wein: “The question of the Christian origin of France is a false debate”

A historian as brilliant as he was extraordinary, both in his career and in his personality, Paul Wein was one of the foremost specialists on the ancient world. If his favorite field remained pagan Rome, the Collège de France emeritus professor also published fascinating works on the process that led the West to Christianity. In an interview published in December 2016, St “The World of Religions” He revisited the cultural heritage that created Europe.

in your book When our world became Christian (Albin Michel, 2007), you will notice that at the beginning of IV c^e In the century, the Roman Empire had 10% Christians. After two centuries, paganism is a remnant. How can this enormous success of Christianity be explained?

This success can be explained by two elements: not only, since the reign of Constantine, the emperors – with the exception of Julian the Apostate (361-363) – support Christianity and heavily finance it; But Christianity also has its special characteristic: it is organized like an army, with a chief, sub-chiefs and local princes (archbishops, bishops, priests). In fact, this organization made it possible to form the military-spiritual framework of the population, if I may say so. I don’t know where this particular organization of the Christian religion came from that deserves to be studied.

On the contrary, how can we explain that paganism was so quickly forgotten?

You must know that paganism was in crisis for six or seven centuries. In the eyes of scholars, it contained too much fable and naivety, so much so that the educated pagan no longer knew what he should or could believe. Moreover, money and hierarchical power have changed sides. As has been said, paganism did not completely disappear: whole regions remained pagan for a long time without it. Thus the farmers, sharecroppers, and agricultural laborers who worked on the large estates of Roman lords in Sardinia were still largely pagan around 500. But we did not say it too much: it was not done again.

Note that God was asked for the same things as pagan deities – for example, a good harvest. The ex voto Christians are quite comparable ex voto Gentiles. Nevertheless, for scientists, the Christian religion had an incomparable intellectual and spiritual superiority over paganism in all respects. The love and infinite mercy of a deeply charismatic God, a morality that reaches into every aspect of the believer’s life, and a divine project of creation that gives meaning to humanity: so many elements that could only attract the elites.