Late ancient Christianity
By: Virginia Burrus, editor.
Contributors: Burrus, Virginia.
Series: A people's history of Christianity ;; v. 2
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 318
Subjects: Christian life -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600.; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
Description: How has Christianity through the ages actually been lived and experienced by ordinary Christians? To address this question, this volume shifts the focus from various Christian elites, whether clerical or theological or political, to "average" people. Centered on the Roman imperial period, twelve historians search for clues to the everyday realities of Christians' lives in the era when Christianity grew from marginal sect to dominant religion. Popular fiction, childrearing and toys, rituals of inclusion, veneration of saints and shunning of heretics, the ascetic impulse, feast days and festivals--all these and more lend color and texture to the story of a "people's" Christianity in this formative stage.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Asceticism, class, and gender / Elizabeth A. Clark; title: Fictional narratives and social critique / Judith Perkins; title: Martrydom as exaltation / Robin Darling Young; title: Children's play as social ritual / Cornelia B. Horn; title: Baptismal rites and architecture / Robin M. Jensen; title: Food, ritual, and power / Andrew McGowan; title: Saints, identity, and the city / Dennis Trout; title: Personal devotions and private chapels / Kimberly Bowes; title: Heresy, households, and the disciplining of diversity / Harry O. Maier; title: Jewish Christians, Judaizers, and Christian anti-Judaism / Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert; title: Beyond magic and superstition / David Frankfurter.