彼得·布朗与他的古代晚期研究

Peter Brown and His Research on Late Antiquity

彼得·布朗是当代西方史学界最具影响的学者之一。他所开创的古代晚期研究将从古典向中世纪过渡的时代视为西方文明史中一个具有鲜明特点和高度成就的历史世界。布朗的"古代晚期"并非一个固定的历史分期,而是一个时空边界开放的史学问题,变迁与延续之间的张力是其核心问题。在其学术生涯中,从奥古斯丁这个时代人物到神圣性、社会领袖、身体、财富,布朗通过变换的视角对古代晚期世界社会结构、思想气质与心理结构提供了多项创造性的研究。

Peter Brown is one of the most influential contemporary Western historians. He has created the study of Late Antiquity, which treats the transitional era from the classical to the medieval period as a significant historical period in the western civilization. Brown’s Late Antiquity is not a fixed historical period, but a historical topic with flowing temporal and special boundaries, and its core is the tension between change and continuity. Through changing perspectives, from Augustine to sanctity, leadership, body and wealth, Brown has offered multiple creative studies of social structure, thought and mentality of Late Antiquity.