In this outstanding book, Adam Schor, an assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina, examines the connections between the Christological controversies of the first half of the fifth century and the social relations among bishops, imperial officials, monks, and other actors in late Roman Syria. Schor asks why differences in theological terminology should have aroused such fierce passions among a wide range of people and why clergy, monks, and others in Syria at times formed a strong alliance and at other times seemed to dissolve into weaker factions. His approach assumes a close connection between social networks and religious commitments: not simply the number and identity of one's friends, patrons, or allies affected one's loyalty in a religious controversy, but also how actors arranged and performed these relationships and understood them to be meaningful. Schor argues that resonances between theological commitments and social arrangements create a communal solidarity that can be effective, if not invulnerable, in conflict over theological ideas. In this case, an Antiochene social network, fostered by and to some extent centered on Theodoret of Cyrrhus (bishop 423-457), supported a dyophysite (two-natures) understanding of Christ that resonated with its socio-cultural experience.

To support his thesis, Schor makes effective use of social network theory, which allows him to delineate the Antiochene network and its changes with precision. In the five chapters of Part I ("Theodoret and his Antiochene Clerical Network"), Schor first lays out his method, which relies on verbal clues (specific terms that signal doctrinal and social affinity), exchanges of letters, the sending and receiving of envoys, synodical and conciliar meetings, and the like to identify network ties. He then can (in Chapter 2) map the network, which reveals its reliance on a small number of leading figures whose ties with other participants are most dense. These "hubs" included John of Antioch, Acacius of Beroea, and especially Theodoret himself. As in a contemporary airline hub-and-spoke system, the network's survival and effectiveness depended on these hubs; less densely tied participants were open to being peeled off from the group, and the overall network was vulnerable to dissolution through successful undermining of the hubs. Theodoret's extensive correspondence provides the primary (but not exclusive) evidence for Schor's reconstruction. These chapters not only convincingly describe Theodoret's social network, but also provide a methodological model for scholars who may wish to explore other late ancient contexts.

The next three chapters trace the fortunes of the Antiochene network from the 420s into the 450s. In Chapter 3 Schor persuasively reads Theodoret's Church History and Historia religiosa as attempts to legitimate his theological community by granting it a history and a set of guiding values that included prestigious ascetics in it. Chapters 4 and 5 then describe how the network rallied, fractured, and renewed itself under Theodoret's leadership in the 430s, but then suffered losses and attacks in the 440s that left it substantially weakened, if not completely dissolved, in the run-up to the so-called "Robber Council" of Ephesus in 449.

The three chapters in Part II ("Theodoret and Late Roman Networks of Patronage") turn to those of Theodoret's networking activities that can be understood as specifically patronal in character. Here is where Schor finds the most important resonance between the Antiochenes' socio-cultural experience and their two-natures Christology. Chapter 6 gives a general overview of late Roman patronage and how the work of Syrian bishops participated in it; Schor looks at bishops' interactions with local elites, educational figures, imperial and military officials, and the leaders of other religious communities, as he emphasizes their roles as mediators in church and society. In Chapter 7, he turns to a detailed consideration of Theodoret's work as a patron, drawing on the rich evidence of the bishop's letters. Schor repeatedly refers to Theodoret's activities as "performances," highlighting the way in which ancient actors assumed certain roles (benefactor, ally, mediator, etc.) in order to forge ties and get social results from those ties. As Theodoret came under effective attack in the late 440s, he increasingly had to take on the role of righteous victim or "confessor," undermining his stature as a patron. I recommend these two chapters to any student or scholar interested in how late Roman patronage worked and how bishops worked as patrons.

In the eighth and final chapter, Schor more explicitly draws a connection between theology and social life through what he calls "resonance." "Socio-cultural resonance," he writes, occurs "when cultural traditions affirm social patterns, which in turn reaffirm these cultural traditions" (191). Although Schor offers a series of resonances between the social experience of the Antiochene network and Theodoret's Christology, the basic link is "social mediation," which Schor identifies as a "deep metaphor, a basis for theological common sense" in Theodoret's thought (189). It is important to understand that Schor does not argue that theological concepts and symbols originate in social patterns; he is not a brute functionalist in his thinking. Rather, in a tradition that can be traced back at least to Max Weber, he believes that religious symbols and social forms can be mutually reinforcing. In this case, the particular character of the social network that Theodoret cultivated, which relied heavily on patronage relationships characterized by condescension, flexibility, and mediation, resonated with a Christology that emphasized Christ as a mediating figure between two distinct natures that relate in a pattern of divine condescension and human dependence. Such an argument always has a speculative dimension, but I find it entirely persuasive. Schor offers a preliminary sketch of a corresponding resonance between Cyrillian one-nature Christology and Alexandrian social patterns that would illumine the vehemence of the opposition to Antiochene Christology (194-199), but to do that question justice would require another book.

An epilogue briefly considers how, in the wake of its seeming victory at the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Antiochene community as a single network based in Syria fractured, yet the Antiochene legacy endured in new contexts, including the Church of the East.

Theodoret's People is a very fine book: it is clearly written, sound and sophisticated in its method, and meticulous in its scholarship. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in late Roman social and religious history or in the social dimensions of theological debate.

David Brakke