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This book traces the development of religious beliefs in Anglo-Saxon engliand, an dthe influence of religion upon everyday life. (inside flap.).
This groundbreaking work treats the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons as a process of religious change and is the first to establish the importance of Christian doctrines and popular intuitions about death and the dead in the transition, focusing on the outbreak of epidemic disease between 664 and 687 as a crucial period for the survival of Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England. It analyzes Anglo-Saxon conceptions of the soul and afterlife as well as traditional mortuary rituals, re-interpreting archaeological evidence to argue that the change from furnished to unfurnished burial in the late seventh and early eighth century demonstrates the success of the church's attempts to counter popular fears that the plague was caused by the return of the dead to carry off the living. The study employs ethnographic comparisons and anthropological theory to further our understanding of pagan Anglo-Saxon deities, ritual and ritual practitioners, and also considers the challenges confronting the Anglo-Saxon church, as it faced not only popular attachment to traditional values and beliefs, but also gendered responses to, or syncretistic constructions of, Christianity.
Hammer of the Gods covers the beliefs, rites, and practices of modern day Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, a pagan religion derived from years of research into the beliefs of the ancient Anglo-Saxons and Norse
This book draws together the varied evidence for the pagan religion of the early Saxons and interprets this evidence. The comprehensive investigation which David Wilson presents has long been needed, since the subject thus far has only been treated in a limited way in articles and occasional chapters in books dealing generally with the period. David Wilson's approach is distinctive in that the evidence is in the main taken from this country, without using later Scandinavian material and back-projecting it into early England. Much of what has been gleaned about Saxon paganism comes from the funeral rites of the people, and their sometimes sinister overtones, and these are dealt with at some length, together with the sorts of evidence that tell us about gods and the places where they might have been worshipped, and the impact of the coming of Christianity. The book concentrates on factual evidence rather than on extreme and unsubstantiated theories, although interpretations must often be matters of conjecture or controversy, even more so as this was a non-literate society and consequently there are no contemporary writings to help. Anglo-Saxon Paganism should appeal to all students and teachers of the history, archaeology and religion of the Anglo-Saxon period. It addresses in a fresh way many of the problems associated with the Dark Age.
Draws on historical, ethnographical and anthropological studies to create a fresh understanding of Christianization in medieval Europe.
When Christianity spread from its Mediterranean base into the Germanic and Celtic north, it initiated profound changes, particularly in kinship relations and sexual mores. Joseph H. Lynch traces the introduction and assimilation of the concept of spiritual kinship into Anglo-Saxon England. Covering the years 597 to 1066, he shows how this notion unsettled and in time altered the structures of the society.In early Germanic societies, kinship was a major organizing principle. Spiritual kinship of various kinds began to take hold among the Anglo-Saxons with the arrival of Christian missionaries from Rome in the seventh century. Lynch discusses in detail sponsorship at baptism, confirmation, and other rituals in which an individual other than a biological parent presented someone, often an infant, for initiation into Christianity. After the ceremony, the sponsor was regarded as the child's spiritual parent or godparent, whose role complemented that of the natural mother and father, with whom the sponsor had become a "coparent." He describes the difficulties posed by the incest taboo, which included a ban on marriage between spiritual kin. Lynch's work reveals how Anglo-Saxons, though never accepting the sexual taboos that were so prominent in the Frankish, Roman, and Byzantine churches, did create new forms of spiritual kinship. Unusual in its focus and scope, this book illuminates an integral element in the religious, social, and diplomatic life of Anglo-Saxon England. It also contributes to our understanding of the ways in which Christianization reshaped societal relations and moral attitudes.
The story of the conversion of the English to Christianity traditionally begins with Augustine's arrival in 597. This text offers a critical re-evaluation of the process of conversion which assesses what the act really meant to new converts, who was responsible for it, and why particular figures both accepted conversion for themselves and threw their influence behind the spread of Christianity. The conversion has often been seen as something which missionaries did to the English. The book restores responsibility to the English and, in particular, King Aethelbert, Edwin, Oswald and Oswin, and it is their religious policies that form the focus of this text.