Cult of the Dead

A Brief History of Christianity
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-0-520-34516-4
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 158 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 784 g

A cultural history of how Christianity was born from its martyrs.

Though it promises eternal life, Christianity was forged in death. Christianity is built upon the legacies of the apostles and martyrs who chose to die rather than renounce the name of their lord. In this innovative cultural history, Kyle Smith shows how a devotion to death has shaped Christianity for two thousand years.

For centuries, Christians have cared for their saints, curating their deaths as examples of holiness. Martyrs’ stories, lurid legends of torture, have been told and retold, translated and rewritten. Martyrs’ bones are alive in the world, relics pulsing with wonder. Martyrs’ shrines are still visited by pilgrims, many in search of a miracle. Martyrs have even shaped the Christian conception of time, with each day of the year celebrating the death of a saint. From Roman antiquity to the present, by way of medieval England and the Protestant Reformation, Cult of the Dead tells the fascinating story of how the world’s most widespread religion is steeped in the memory of its martyrs.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, Kyle

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction

1. The First of the Dead
2. The Names of the Dead
3. The Remains of the Dead
4. The Feasts of the Dead
5. The Living Dead
6. The Miracles of the Dead
7. The War for the Dead
8. The Legends of the Dead

Postscript
Acknowledgments
Notes for Further Reading
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kyle Smith is Professor of Historical Studies and the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. An award-winning teacher, he is the author or coauthor of four other books about Christian saints and martyrs.