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Christianity in the late antique world was not imposed but embraced, and the laity were not passive members of their religion but had a central role in its creation. This volume explores the role of the laity in Gaul, bringing together the fields of history, archaeology and theology.
First, this book follows the ways in which clergy and monks tried to shape and manufacture lay religious experience. They had themselves constructed the category of 'the laity', which served as a negative counterpart to their self-definition. Lay religious experience was thus shaped in part by this need to create difference between categories. The book then focuses on how the laity experienced their religion, how they interpreted it and how their decisions shaped the nature of the Church and of their faith. This part of the study pays careful attention to the diversity of the laity in this period, their religious environments, ritual engagement, behaviours, knowledge and beliefs.
The first volume to examine laity in this period in Gaul – a key region for thinking about the transition from Roman rule to post-Roman society – The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul fills an important gap in current literature.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781350052239
Number of pages: 256
Weight: 363 g
…an exemplary study of the interaction between Christian authority figures and those over whom they claimed pastoral oversight. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in the construction (and contestation) of Christian identity in late antiquity. - Robin Whelan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Recommended to any reader with an interest in the rich religious culture that flourished in the last phases and long aftermath of Roman imperial rule in Gaul. - The Classical Review
Lisa Bailey’s The Religious Worlds of the Laity in Late Antique Gaul is both a masterpiece and a model. It drastically revises common assumptions about the religious role of the laity in early Christian Gaul. She recovers the features of an entire world of Christian lay men and women that is usually cast into the shadows by the glare of assertive clerical texts. We overhear, at long last, the muted voices of the laity, as they pressed in around the rituals, trooped in to the churches and clung to the holy places of the new religion. She has brought to life again the role of ordinary men and women in the religious transformation that made western Europe what it is. - Peter Brown, Professor Emeritus of History, Princeton University, USA
Lisa Bailey’s starting point is that the laity of late antique Gaul deserve to have their voices heard, and this rich and fascinating new book certainly bears this out. The diverse religious experiences of real people are brought to life convincingly in this account. Bailey builds up on her knowledge of a vast range of different source material and up-to-date scholarship to produce a readable and insightful book that will be greatly appreciated by scholars and students alike. - Lucy Grig, Senior Lecturer in Classics, The University of Edinburgh, UK
Ordinary people are often absent from history. As a step toward remedying this persistent omission, Lisa Bailey searched for the laity in an array of sources from late antique Gaul, including sermons, secular and canon law, hagiography, epitaphs and archaeological evidence. Her study provides a nuanced account of the diverse beliefs and behaviors of ordinary Christians, challenging the tendency of scholarship to define religious norms according to the standards of the Church authorities. - Jaclyn Maxwell, Associate Professor of History, Ohio University, USA
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