Like you I do not profess to be an expert on the inner workings of the early Christian church (east or west) most of my impressions are drawn from the more secular elements of history between about 300 and 1000 AD.
What has become evident to me over the years as I have read more and more on the history of late antiquity and post-Roman Europe was how utterly disrupted western sociaty had become and how much information was lost in the period mentioned above. The barbarian invasions, the rise of Islam and loss to Europe of the great eastern libraries, then the Norse and so on. Throw in a few pandemics, tribal warfare among the new arrivals and the Huns and it is little wonder that the west survived at all.
Through all of this warfare and chaos what has caught my attention was how sociology played a role in almost all the events (not really a surprise when one thinks about it). The way the Byzantines, Franks, Goths and others saw the world had a direct influence on events and their culture was more often than not the driving force behind events, far more than the actual movements of armies and the battles fought here or there.
Oh, my. We seemed to have completely hijacked this thread. Apologies to all. :creep:
