Brother-Making in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

Monks, Laymen, and Christian Ritual
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-538933-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 364 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 777 g

Among medieval Christian societies, Byzantium is unique in preserving an ecclesiastical ritual of adelphopoiesis that pronounces two men as brothers. It has its origin as a spiritual blessing in the monastic world of late antiquity, and it becomes a popular social networking strategy among lay people from the ninth century onwards, even finding application in recent times. Located at the intersection of religious and social history, brother-making exemplifies how social practice can become ritualized and subsequently subjected to attempts of ecclesiastical and legal control. Wide-ranging in its use of sources, from a complete census of the manuscripts containing the ritual of adelphopoiesis to the literature and archaeology of early monasticism, and from the works of hagiographers, historiographers, and legal experts in Byzantium to comparative material in the Latin West and the Slavic world, this book is the first exhaustive treatment of the phenomenon.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rapp, Claudia

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen Christliche Orden und Vereinigungen, Ordensgeschichte, Mönchstum

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgements

- Abbreviations, Spelling and Transliteration

- Introduction

- One: Social Structures

- Two: The Ritual of Adelphopoiesis

- Three: The Origins: Small-Group Monasticism in Late Antiquity

- Four: The Social Practice of Brother-Making in Byzantium

- Five: Prescriptions and Restrictions in Byzantium

- Six: Beyond Byzantium

- Appendix 1: List of Manuscripts

- Appendix 2: Table of Prayers

- Appendix 3: Prayers in Translation

- Bibliography: Sources

- Bibliography: Scholarly Literature

Über Autor(innen)

Claudia Rapp is Director of the Division of Byzantine Research, Institute for Medieval Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences.She was awarded the 2015 Wittgenstein Prize, the most prestigious scientific award in Austria.