This same dynamic motivates contemporary Christian congregations in Africa, where paganism and animism are still vibrant forces, and where recently converted Christians ceremonially burn fetishes and pagan artifacts. The power of the old gods ended at the moment Christians wrecked their idols and survived unscathed. People would continue to believe in the power of the old gods and spirits until their sacred places were removed. While their actions were not defensible, the monks were correct to see the pagan shrines as a major obstacle to Christianization. Monks then, like extreme Islamists today, saw temples and statues not as cultural heritage but as flagrant manifestations of polytheism and diabolism. Many of their actions, such as their attack on the pagan remains of Palmyra, seem alarmingly familiar in light of the recent horrors perpetrated by the Islamic State.
The perpetrators were often monks, a “marauding band of bearded black-robed zealots” who in Egypt and parts of the Levant acted as private militias, beyond the control of civil institutions.
Nixey powerfully describes the ruthless destruction of pagan temples, shrines, and institutions in the century after Constantine’s decision to tolerate the new faith. Read our latest issue or browse back issues.
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