Medieval Christianity: Christian Conversion

In a work of splendid scholarship that reflects both a firm mastery of difficult sources and a keen intuition, one of Britain's foremost medievalists tells the story of the Christianization of Europe. It is a very large story, for conversion encompassed much more than religious belief. With it came enormous cultural change: Latin literacy and books, Roman notions of law and property, and the concept of town life, as well as new tastes in food, drink, and dress. Whether from faith or by force, from self-interest or by revelation, conversion had an immense impact that is with us even today. It is Richard Fletcher's achievement in this superb work that he makes that impact both felt and understood.

In this fascinating study of antiquity, Thomas Finn explores the role of ritual and conversion in Judaism, Christianity, Greco-Roman Paganism, and the philosophical schools. Finn makes history come alive both by carefully delineating the historical, cultural, and social factors at work in conversion and by drawing on the stories and firsthand accounts of conversion in ancient times.

"The Cult of Kinship in Anglo-Saxon England" analyses the inter-relationship of cult and culture in terms of the role of the ruler in pre-Conquest England. When the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity, they did not immediately change their social structure nor the integration of religion and kinship which was central to pagan society. Fundamental elements of that integration continue throughout Anglo-Saxon history. The author examines this continuity from paganism to Christianity as it relates to kingship and the religious nature which permeated that institution under both the old and the new cults. The king was not divine in either cult, but in both he was the leader of the tribal religion, and, as his role is the major factor in the conversion of England, so the royal relation with the divine was to be part of medieval rulership throughout the following centuries.

Deeply influenced by the theology and rhetoric of Augustine, the homilies provide an invaluable window on the fifth-century church in Carthage and Roman North Africa, including her views on Judaism and paganism, as well as her internal dynamics, debates, and strife. The homilies focus on the nature, meaning, and effect of the liturgy of baptism during the process of conversion to a living Christianity. From the homilies, the reader learns who the candidates were, why they sought a new religious life, what they expected from Christianity, what was expected of them, and how the baptismal liturgy transformed and initiated them into the church's life. The homilies confirm and advance what can be learned from St. Augustine and his predecessors - not to mention his other North African contemporaries and successors - about both conversion and the extensive and complex liturgy of baptism.

"Every book has its bias. The bias of this one is twofold. First, it has been written from a standpoint within the Roman Empire. This is, I believe, inevitable since the written sources for the early Germans are almost wholly Greek and Roman. Secondly, I have used the archaeological evidence much more freely than of literature. Archaeology is now recognized as a vital source of information, not only for the culture of the Germanic peoples, but also for their early history. But archaeological evidence, even for daily life, has severe limitations. At first sight it may seem to offer a great deal, but in truth there are many aspects which archaeology can never reveal. The archaeology of a pre-literate people tells us most about their settlements, homes, household utensils, their means of subsistence, way of making war, their burial-sites and, to a limited extent, their ideas of the supernatural. These are the aspects on which I have concentrated." -Introduction.

This masterly study by one of the foremost experts on the Dark Ages provides authoritative guidelines to the bewildering flux of the period, and recharts the fundamentals of such knowledge as the historian may obtain. The original French edition of Professor Musset's work - published under the title "Les Invasions: les vagues germaniques" - was hailed by scholars everywhere as a work that brilliantly summarized modern scholarship on the invasions and their consequences.

Visigothic kings ruled Spain throughout the sixth and seventh centuries. What were their political and military achievements? How did they govern their subjects, Hispano-Roman as well as Gothic? What changes, if any, can be traced in their system of government during these two hundred years? What can be learned of their armed forces? Did the Arian kings persecute their Catholic subjects? When the Goths became Catholic, what was the relation of Gothic bishops with Roman bishops ? What was the character of the Councils of Toledo? Professor Thompson tries to answer these and similar questions, several of which have not been discussed hitherto by any except Spanish scholars.

Ramsay MacMullen investigates the transition from paganism to Christianity between the fourth and eighth centuries. He reassesses the triumph of Christianity, contending that it was neither tidy nor quick, and he shows that the two religious systems were both vital during an interactive period that lasted far longer than historians have previously believed. MacMullen explores the influences of paganism and Christianity upon each other. In a rich discussion of the different strengths of the two systems, he demonstrates that pagan beliefs were not eclipsed or displaced by Christianity but persisted or were transformed. The victory of the Christian church, he explains, was one not of obliteration but of widening embrace and assimilation. This fascinating book also includes new material on the Christian persecution of pagans over the centuries through methods that ranged from fines to crucifixion; the mixture of motives in conversion; the stubbornness of pagan resistance; the difficulty of satisfying the demands and expectations of new converts; and the degree of assimilation of Christianity to paganism.

While historians of Christianity have generally acknowledged some degree of Germanic influence in the development of early medieval Christianity, Russell goes further, arguing for a fundamental Germanic transformation of Christianity. This first full-scale treatment of the subject follows a truly interdisciplinary approach, applying to the early medieval period a sociohistorical method similar to that which has already proven fruitful in explicating the history of Early Christianity and Late Antiquity. The encounter of the Germanic peoples with Christianity is studied from within the larger context of the encounter of a predominantly "world-accepting" Indo-European folk-religiosity with predominantly "world-rejecting" religious movements. While the first part of the book develops a general model of religious transformation for such encounters, the second part applies this model to the Germano-Christian scenario. Russell shows how a Christian missionary policy of temporary accommodation inadvertently contributed to a reciprocal Germanization of Christianity. Applying insights from the behavioral sciences and Indo-European studies to analyze this pivotal transformation of the West, this book will interest students and scholars of religion, history, sociology, and social psychology, as well as those who wish to further their understanding of the history of Christianity and of Western civilization.

"The Barbarians Speak re-creates the story of Europe's indigenous people who were nearly stricken from historical memory even as they adopted and transformed aspects of Roman culture. The Celts and Germans inhabiting temperate Europe before the arrival of the Romans left no written record of their lives and were often dismissed as "barbarians" by the Romans who conquered them. A more accurate, sophisticated picture of the indigenous people emerges, however, from the archaeological remains of the Iron Age. Here Peter Wells brings together information that has belonged to the realm of specialists and enables the general reader to share in the excitement of rediscovering a "lost people." In so doing, he is the first to marshal material evidence in a broad-scale examination of the response by the Celts and Germans to the Roman presence in their lands."--Jacket.