We have done our best in this book to offer the reader (expert or not) as clear a picture as possible of the major changes that Baetica underwent during Late Antiquity. Undoubtedly, the lack of historical sources can only be compensated through the analysis of archaeological and epigraphic evidence, especially material ‘Christian’ remains: churches, mausoleums, monumental tombs, and their inscriptions. It has been no easy task. What is suitably called ‘the weight of historiography’ is very heavy indeed and reinforces a strong inertia, as seen in the first part of this book. This is not a traditional story about Christianity or the Church. Furthermore, it is not a book on ‘Christian Archaeology’. Much less can it be considered a book on Art. Far too often books tend to approach early Christianity or the early Church focusing on religion, on a religious process, or on early Christian art. This is all too well, but it is not the case with this study.

We have tried to make a history book that allows us to analyse, through all available data, two of the most obvious aspects of the transformation of Baetica's society along a period that spans more than three hundred years: the so-called process of Christianization and the emergence of the Church as an institution of power. We have distanced ourselves from the traditional practice of studying these issues from an exclusively dogmatic point of view. We have not studied churches to know only this or that change in liturgical practice. The idea was to find physical evidence of the expansion of the new religion, beyond the mere analysis of some necropolis or a liturgical detail at a particular temple. We wanted to ‘map’ the emergence of the earliest Christian architecture in cities and rural areas, applying to this ‘historical equation’ the time ‘variable’. We wanted to investigate what is seldom studied, always from a critical point of view distinct from ideological preconceptions or preconceived historiographical paradigms. We wanted to know how, when, and why an institution such as the late antique church in Baetica was formed, and to what extent its appearance affected wider society.