Christian authors reframed worldly subordination as otherworldly superiority

Evidence

A socially subordinate role for Christianity could be shown to make sense: by tapping into ascetic traditions, these authors could portray Christianity as the otherworldly religion, its adherents, unconcerned with the city of man, neither rich nor powerful. It is unsurprising that Eastern Christian authors from this period wrote few chronicles of world history: having rejected pseudo-Methodius’s apocalyptic vision of history, what vision could they now comfortably adopt? — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 405

Categorization

• XREF: The binary ‘Islam = worldly power/wealth/sex vs Christianity = spiritual’ is precisely the trope-ancestor Anidjar/Aziz document in modern form; shows the flip-side psychological function of the dominance-religion complex.