Approaching “Lived Religion” from Late Antiquity to the Central Middle Ages

This book explores key historical moments revealing the dynamic tension between prescribed religious norms and the lived experiences of practitioners.

This edited volume brings together renowned specialists from History, Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, Archaeology and Art History to critically examine the topic of religious experience and so-called “lived religion” from Late Antiquity to the Central Middle Ages. With papers on Judaism, Christianity and Islam in this period, the volume is the first of its kind to consider this question in the early medieval era from a comparative perspective, drawing from a wide variety of theoretical literatures and multiple approaches, including performance theory, history of emotions, eco-criticism, queer phenomenology, history of experience and new materialism culture, to name just a few.

Recovering a historical community’s religious experiences is a delicate, oftentimes difficult task. This is particularly true of religious experiences from Late Antiquity to the Central Middle Ages (c. 300–1100 C.E.), where the number and quality of sources for religious communities increase (compared to classical antiquity) yet have not reached the fevered pitch of the so-called High Middle Ages.