Private worship, public values, and religious change in late antiquity
By: Kim Bowes.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9780521885935
Subjects: Worship -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
Description: "Conventional histories of late antique Christianity tell the story of a public institution - the Christian church. In this book, Kim Bowes relates another history, that of the Christian private. Using textual and archaeological evidence, she examines the Christian rituals of home and rural estate, which took place outside the supervision of bishops and their agents. These domestic rituals and the spaces in which they were performed were rooted in age-old religious habits. They formed a major, heretofore unrecognized force in late ancient Christian practice." "The religion of home and family, however, was not easily reconciled with that of the bishop's church. Domestic Christian practices presented challenges to episcopal authority and posed thorny questions about the relationship between individuals and the Christian collective. As Bowes suggests, the story of private Christianity reveals a watershed in changing conceptions of "public" and "private," one whose repercussions echo through contemporary political and religious debate."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: An empire of friends and family : public and private in Roman religions; title: Public and private in Roman paganism; title: Public and private as legal categories; title: The public priesthoods : family and patronage; title: Consecratio dedicatio : marking public and private religious space; title: Household cults and their public roles; title: Public and private in the "unofficial cults"; title: Superstitio and magia : tensions between public and private; title: Communal and private in second and third-century Christianity; title: From home to domus ecclesia : the Christian collective in flux; title: Christian private ritual; title: Private and collective ritual in Christian thought; title: Public and private in pagan and Christian thought; title: Two Christian capitals : private worship in Rome and Constantinople; title: Rome; title: Pre-constantinian realities; title: The Roman Tituli; title: Going to church in fourth and early fifth century Rome : the continuation of house-churches; title: The home as church : domestic piety and the conversion of Rome's elite; title: Contesting the private in late fourth century Rome; title: Constantinople; title: Fourth centuries realities; title: Constantinople's Christian topography : a city of private churches; title: Bishops and private churches; title: Monks and the private; title: "Christianizing" the countryside : rural estates and private cult; title: The fourth century countryside; title: The forms of estate worship : villa churches, mausolea, and "monasteries"; title: Social qualities of estate-based Christianity; title: Bishops and rural elites : estate Christianity in local context; title: Working with bishops : North Africa; title: What bishop : northern Italy, Britain and the absence of the church hierarchies; title: Bishops versus elites : Hispania and southwestern Gaul; title: Ideologies of the private : private cult and the construction of heresy and sanctity; title: Contesting private worship : heresy and the home; title: Roman law and Christian law : ideologies of private cult; title: Homes on the defensive; title: Promoting private worship : constructing ideals of female sanctity; title: The private in the vita macrina; title: The private and female heresy.