Revitalization of Christianity in Paul Doherty’s Murder Imperial

Abstract

This thesis explores the significance of rewriting Roman history of the Conversion Era in Paul Doherty‟s Murder Imperial by putting the novel within its social, religious, and socio-psychological phenomena of early twenty-first-century during which it was produced. Paul Doherty in Murder Imperial rewrites the history of early fourth-century Roman Empire, under the rule of Constantine, by focusing on those contextual factors such as religious conflicts, communal and cultural conflicts, political activities and the socio-psychology of the transitional era. The novel brings out the consciousness of the transitional era which was marked by the horror of violence and bloodshed. By dramatizing the various conflicts of the early fourth-century Roman Empire, the novel reflects and embodies the conflicts and socio-psychology of the early twenty-first- century and also embodies the Christian ideology to revitalize its religious faith. This research brings into consideration the embodiment of history of the time in which the novel was produced. By doing this, it helps to interpret the interrelationship of any text with its various social constraints, even in a text like Murder Imperial that seems to be far distanced from its time of production.