University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (Classical Studies) Classical Studies at Penn 2007 “Christianization” and the Rural Home Kimberly Bowes University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers Part of the Christianity Commons, Classics Commons, and the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Bowes, K. (2007). “Christianization” and the Rural Home. Journal of Early Christian Studies, 15 (2), 143-170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/earl.2007.0029 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/165 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “Christianization” and the Rural Home Abstract The "Christianization" of the home is taken up here by examining the specific problem of Christian ritual and ritual spaces on the rural estate. It is argued that most worship in rural villas took place outside ecclesiastical supervision or intervention, and instead was shaped by older seigniorial hierarchies. It was this particular sociology of worship that brought domestic worship under episcopal scrutiny. The dissonance between seigniorial and ecclesiastical social structures might leave Christian estates outside episcopally-centered communities, suggesting that the "Christianization" of the rural home might be an ambiguous, fissiparous process rather than a seamless cultural transformation. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Christianity | Classics | History of Christianity This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/165 “Christianization” and the Rural Home KIM BOWES The “Christianization” of the home is taken up here by examining the specific problem of Christian ritual and ritual spaces on the rural estate. It is argued that most worship in rural villas took place outside ecclesiastical supervision or intervention, and instead was shaped by older seigniorial hierarchies.