This book examines the ritual experiences of neglected “ordinary” Christians of Late Antiquity. Despite a recent increase in studies on late antique lay Christians, the engagement of Christian non-elites in ritual practice remains little explored. Moreover, how these people experienced the rituals they attended has rarely been examined. Georgia Frank makes use of mainly Eastern sources to address these omissions in current scholarship, examining the engagement of Christians believers with religious rituals through objects, sound, and space.
The introductory chapter 1 (“A Commencement of Reality”) defines the study’s “ordinary” Christians as “men and women, and enslaved, freed, and free persons who did not renounce sex or choose voluntary poverty” (2). Influenced by studies on lived religion and the agency of the laity, Frank states that the study aims to decenter traditional accounts of late antique Christianity by deemphasizing elite perspectives. However, this ambition is successful only in part, largely due...
University of California Press