After a period of great decline, something is always born and built up in its place. The fall of the Roman Empire is no exception to this rule. As seen in both Peter Brown’s and Larry Hurtado’s texts, this was a time period where Christianity prospered and established its dominance throughout the western world. In Brown’s The World of Late Antiquity chapter “The Conversion of Christianity” the main focus is to show the spread of Christianity throughout the Greco-Roman World, while in Hurtado’s The Earliest Christian Artifacts chapter “The Early Christian Preference for the Codex” the principal idea takes on a different approach where the author focuses on the integration of Christianity in the Greco-Roman World by promoting many forms of cultural expression (already relevant at the time) as their own. While these two authors have parallel arguments, they differ in their approach to audience and evidence.

First of all, by examining the audience in both these pieces of writing, the reader is able to better understand the overall idea of the text, as it answers the question of why they were written in the way that they were. Looking at Brown’s style of writing it is immediately evident that the reader is required to have some understanding of the topic at hand, or some general background knowledge. This is because Brown’s writing is almost like a narrative or a story, it has a specific, chronological flow that helps an individual tie all the information together and fill in many of the gaps they may have had prior to having done the reading . In contrast to Brown’s writing, an individual reading Hurtado’s text would need little to no prior knowledge of the topic being discussed. This is because of his rich use of facts that focus on quantitive data and statistics, as well as the incorporation of not only his opinions, but the multiple opinions of others before him. This makes his work an easier read as his main goal isn’t to force his own personal idea onto the reader like, much like Brown does, but to voice his opinion with that of others to understand the role of codices and their relationship with Christianity.

Moreover, the relationship each of these authors have with their evidence contributes to the overall notion behind the work, and how it is perceived by the readers. Looking at Brown’s use of evidence, it is clear that he has a very personal relationship with his evidence, which is focused solely on his understanding of the importance of Christianity and his opinion on the matter. Hurtado’s relationship to his evidence is more distant than Brown’s, as he takes into account different opinions on the issues he is examining. He does this with the support of graphs in order to convince the reader by means of a more logical and factual approach. In my opinion Brown’s use of evidence was more compelling as he conveyed his beliefs in black and white, where his belief was the only option, in contrast Hurtado’s different sources, while making him sound more credible, could leave the reader lost and overwhelmed, unsure of where they stand on the issue.