Household, Women And Christianities in Late Antiquity And the Middle Ages (Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts) (Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts)

From its earliest beginnings in the homes of its members, the church has been the ‘house’ of God, and the episcopal and monastic institutions in which many of God’s professed servants and officials dwell have been seen as religious ‘houses’. The church’s history is accordingly the history of an institution largely conceived of as a household. In recent years, secular life and lifestyles in late antiquity and the Middle Ages have been illuminated through renewed attention to the economic and social history of households, while scholarship on women has produced studies of the lives and the devotional reading of laywomen and women religious. This volume is a pioneering collection that unites study of the household with women’s religious practices as a focus of enquiry. It moves beyond consideration of the church’s roles in women’s history to the impact of women’s householding on the history of the church. Front matter (“Contents”, “Acknowledgements”, “List of Abbreviations”), p. i Free Access Introduction Part I: Household, Women, and Lived Christianity, p. 1 Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3619 The Household and the Desert: Monastic and Biological Communities in the Lives of Melania the Younger, p. 11 Kate Cooper https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3620 ‘Oikos-Ecclesiology’ and ‘Church Order’ in Eastern Christianity, p. 37 Eva M. Synek https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3621 The Icon Corner in Medieval Byzantium, p. 71 Judith Herrin https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3622 Household and Empire: The Materfamilias as Miles Christi in the Anonymous Handbook for Gregoria, p. 91 Kate Cooper https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3623 Faith, Family, and Fortune: The Effect of Conversion on Women in Scandinavia, p. 109 Birgit Sawyer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3624 Introduction Part II: Medieval Households, p. 125 Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3625 ‘Our Steward, St Jerome’: Theology and the Anglo-Norman Household, p. 133 Jocelyn Wogan-Browne https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3626 The Monastery as a Household within the Universal Household, p. 167 Else Marie Wiberg Pedersen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3627 The Household as a Site of Civic and Religious Instruction: Two Household Books from Late Medieval Brabant, p. 191 Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3628 The Bolton Hours of York: Female Domestic Piety and the Public Sphere, p. 215 Sarah Rees Jones, Felicity Riddy https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MWTC-EB.3.3629 Much recent research has illuminated medieval secular life and lifestyles with renewed attention to the economic and social history of medieval households. New editions of household rolls and account books have appeared, together with further studies of kin groups and the demographics of household, and intensified awareness of the household as a site of cultural patronage. Current scholarship on medieval women has also produced numerous studies of the devotional reading of medieval women, of medieval female communities, and the history of medieval professed and laywomen's religious lives. However we know of no study uniting the household and medieval women's religious activities as a focus of enquiry. The present volume thus at once addresses a field of vigorous scholarship while offering a distinctive and powerful focus for the history of medieval women. "In recent years, secular life and lifestyles in late antiquity and the Middle Ages have been illuminated through renewed attention to the economic and social history of households, while scholarship on women has produced studies of the lives and the devotional reading of laywomen and women religious. This volume is a collection that unites study of the household church's roles in women's history to the impact of women's householding on the history of the church."--Jacket Edited By Anneke B. Mulder-bakker And Jocelyn Wogan-browne. Includes Bibliographical References.