Oxford history of the christian church

Political theory: relations between church and state.

Discussions on this topic occur passim in most general Byzantine histories, but are sometimes misleading and treat the problem out of context. A short balanced assessment may be found in S. Runciman, The Byzantine Theocracy (Cambridge, 1977). H. Ahrweiler, L'Idéologie politique de l'Empire byzantin (Paris, 1975) presents a point of view showing how emphasis in imperial ideology varied. O. Treitinger, Die oströmische Kaiser- und Reichsidee (Darmstadt, 1956) offers a massive collection of evidence (rather solid reading). A. Grabar, L'Empereur dans l'art byzantin (Paris, 1932), shows differing attitudes towards the Emperor as evidenced by representational art. F. Dvornik, Early Christian and Byzantine Political Philosophy, 2 vols. (Washington, DC, 1966) is important but unfortunately hardly gets to Byzantium properly speaking.