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About this book
Christianity is often thought of as a tradition of belief, interpretation, teachings, and texts. However, a scholarly focus on ideas overlooks how early Christian doctrine interacted with social exchanges in lay spaces.
Author Caroline Johnson Hodge fills this gap, shifting our attention from liturgical settings to religion as it was lived outside the prescriptions of congregations. Through a careful reading of the material record alongside print sources, Johnson Hodge shows that in the first through the early fourth centuries, Christians developed household rituals akin to traditional domestic cult practices around the Roman Empire, and this continuity contributed to the success of the new cult in the Roman world. Rather than a well-organized, universal domestic cult, Johnson Hodge finds that practices were flexible and varied, ranging widely from established household observances to unauthorized rituals, gravesite venerations, and the unpatrolled movements of women and slaves. Just as important as the official representations were the small gestures at hearths and doorways, the myriad ways in which followers of Christ incorporated their divine beings into the rituals of their households, shops, and tombs.
In bringing the lived-religion approach to bear on this formative period, Johnson Hodge's study offers a fascinating portrait of a very "pagan" world within ancient Christianity. This book will be especially valuable to religious studies scholars and others interested in the origins of Christianity.
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Table of contents
- COVER Front
- Copyright Page
- Table of CONTENTS
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Introduction
- Notes to Introduction
- Chapter 1: Honoring the Gods in Households
- Notes to Chapter 1
- Chapter 2: Doorways, Bedrooms, and Kitchens A Sampler of Everyday Christian Practices
- Notes to Chapter 2
- Chapter 3: Amulets, Spells, and Gems Seeking Protection and Healing in the Name of Christ
- Notes to Chapter 3
- Chapter 4: Foreign Gods and Unsupervised Worship Wives, Slaves, and Power
- Notes to Chapter 4
- Chapter 5: “Peter and Paul, Keep Us in Mind” The Cult of the Dead Among Pre-Constantinian Christ Followers
- Notes to Chapter 5
- NOTES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- INDEX