Arne Søby Christensen


Arne Søby Christensen is a Danish historian. He is an associate professor in history at the University of Copenhagen.

Biography

Arne Søby Christensen was born in Copenhagen in 1945. He received a cand.mag. in history from the University of Copenhagen in 1975. His book Lactantius the Historian was published in 1980. From 1989 to 1998, Christensen was a member of the :da:Den danske historiske Forening|Danish Historical Society.
Christensen received his PhD in history from the University of Copenhagen in June 2002. His disputation was supervised by Ian N. Wood and Niels Lund. His thesis, Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths, concerned the reliability of Getica by Jordanes and the latters alleged chief source, the now lost Origo Gothica by Cassiodorus. In his thesis, Christensen claims that the Origo Gothica and Getica are entirely fabricated accounts without any foundation in Gothic oral tradition, being instead based upon a dubious synthesis of Greco-Roman sources. Christensen claims that the Greco-Romans knew nothing about the Goths until the 3rd century AD, and that archaeological evidence on Gothic origins is useless. On this account, Christensen recommended that the history of the migration period be rewritten.
An English translation of Christensen's thesis was published in 2002 by Museum Tusculanum Press. Christensen's thesis has generated much interest among scholars. It was praised by Walter Goffart as a useful work. Anthropologist Peter S. Wells considered it a significant contribution to the study of ancient peoples of northern Europe. Ian N. Wood considered it an interesting work, although he thought Christensen went to far in denying Gothic elements in the texts. Sigbjørn Sønnesyn considered Christensen's theories suspiciously similar to circular reasoning. Michael Whitby dismissed Christensen's work as extreme and a mere footnote to what has already been written on the subject. Dick Harrison considered Christensen's book interesting, although he criticized its rejection of archaeological evidence and refusal to respond to the views of dissenting scholars.

Selected works