This study examines the emergence and expansion of church construction in the Decapolis from the fourth to the seventh centuries. The number of churches in these communities during the Byzantine period suggests a significant Christian presence in cities on the fringes of the eastern provinces. The understanding of the development of Christianity in these cities has been limited to brief analyses in the discussion of archaeological remains, and historical assessments have tended to overstate the conflict between pagans and Christians until the traditional cult were eventually defeated as a predominant theme of the fourth century. More recent research has challenged this concept, arguing that it relies on the biased accounts of Christian writers and indicating that older cults survived well into the fifth and sixth century in the eastern provinces, particularly within the countryside. While edicts issued by Constantine began the process by which traditional Roman cults were directly challenged, the Theodosian mandates created an atmosphere in the East that became intolerant of residual paganism. In the Decapolis cities, this ushered in a period that would bring about a large expansion of churches.
This study argues that the churches of the Decapolis from the fourth to the seventh century were at the center of discourse between Christian authorities and non-Christians on the periphery that focused on the continuities and discontinuities with classical culture as a process of re-sacralizing religious and civic spaces within the city. They were also essential in redefining group identities of the community. Theoretical perspectives addressing sacred space and postcolonial perspectives of group identity formation provide insight into this process that reshaped these communities into Byzantine cities, reflecting the complex relationships between church and state that had developed in the post-Constantinian period. While it may be suggested that the church construction in these cities was related to the Christianization of the region, often understood to mean the conversion of its inhabitants, a more significant factor was their continuity with classical society suggesting the necessity of a more nuanced understanding of the origin of the churches in these communities. The churches in the Decapolis emerged and expanded, in part, because of their capacity to fulfill certain civic functions once the province of the local temple that were necessary for the religious and social cohesion of eastern cities.