Religious uprisings and fighting the devil: conceptions and social practices in North Africa between the fourth and fifth centuries

Abstract

This work aims to understand how the Christians of North Africa used the metaphor of "Fighting the Devil" in the context of the struggles for power in North African cities between the end of the fourth century and early fifth century. This work seeks to understand how Christians, who experienced persecution undertaken by the Roman government, conceived martyrdom as a fight against demonic forces. But also, how these conceptions were reworked in the process of building a Christian memory of violence after the peace of Constantine. From the analysis of the Acts of the Martyrs and Augustine of Hippo’s works, we seek to identify how the discourse around Christian memory is built, and in which specific moments these memories of violence are activated. Finally, from specific studies of violent acts committed by rival religious groups, we attempt to find out how different groups used the metaphor of fighting the devil in order to justify the collective practices in the context of religious conflicts that took place among North African cities from the fourth to the fifth century.