I don't pretend to be an expert in this area but three recent books may be
of great help to you:
Frederick S. Paxton, _Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual
Process in Early Medieval Europe_ (Cornell Univ. Press, 1990).
Patrick J. Geary, _Living With the Death in the Middle Ages_ (Cornell
Univ. Press, 1994).
Paul Binski, _Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation_ (Cornell Univ.
Press, 1996).
(Anybody have any ideas why Cornell seems so deeply committed to such fatal
endeavors these days??)
John Parsons
On Thu, 31 Dec 1998, Ingegerd Holand wrote:
> Dear List,
> When I wrote my Ph.D. thesis in archaeology a couple of years ago, I read
> some accounts of how pagan beliefs and ritual structures survived into
> Christian times in my native Norway, especially in common rituals associated
> with life transitions, such as births, marriages, burials etc.
> One of these accounts also stressed the lack of early church involvement in
> carrying out these rituals, partly because of the lack of clergy in many
> rural parts, and partly because they would have to be paid if people wanted
> to use them. The result, as far as I understood it, was that people were
> largely left to organize and carry out for instance burials, just as they
> had in pagan times, without the church getting involved for more than a
> short blessing, if that.
> Since reading this, I have been curious as to how actively the early church
> was involved in the sort of rituals and ceremonies that marked ordinary
> people's lives. Somehow, I had always thought that one of the main
> differences between paganism and Christianity was the appropriation of
> ritual in the Christian church, but perhaps this wasn't so?
> If anyone out there has any thoughts on this, I would be very interested to
> hear them.
> Happy New Year to all,
> Ingegerd H.
>
> Dr. Ingegerd Holand
> 140 Castelnau
> London SW13 9ET
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
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