A01=Robert Wisniewski
Author_Robert Wisniewski
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=NL-HR
Category=QRAX
Category=QRM
Category=QRVG
Category=QRVJ1
Category=QRVS1
COP=United Kingdom
Discount=15
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
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Format=BB
Format_Hardback
HMM=241
IMPN=Oxford University Press
ISBN13=9780199675562
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20181227
POP=Oxford
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
PUB=Oxford University Press
SMM=23
Subject=Religion & Beliefs
WG=564
WMM=163
Product details
- ISBN 9780199675562
- Format: Hardback
- Weight: 564g
- Dimensions: 163 x 241 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 19 Dec 2018
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: Oxford, GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Christians have often admired and venerated the martyrs who died for their faith, but for a long time thought that the bodies of martyrs should remain undisturbed in their graves. Initially, the Christian attitude towards the bones of the dead, saint or not, was that of respectful distance. The Beginnings of the Cult of Relics examines how this attitude changed in the mid-fourth century. Robert Wiśniewski investigates how Christians began to believe in the power of relics, first over demons, then over physical diseases and enemies. He considers how the faithful sought to reveal hidden knowledge at the tombs of saints and why they buried the dead close to them. An essential element of this new belief was a strong conviction that the power of relics was transferred in a physical way and so the following chapters study relics as material objects. Wiśniewski analyses how contact with relics operated and how close it was. Did people touch, kiss, or look at the very bones, or just at tombs and reliquaries which contained them? When did the custom of dividing relics begin? Finally, the book deals with discussions and polemics concerning relics, and attempts to find out the strength of the opposition which this new phenomenon had to face, both within and outside Christianity, on its way to become an essential element of medieval religiosity.
Robert Wiśniewski is Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Warsaw. His research focuses on religious changes in Late Antiquity, with particular attention to the cult of saints, divination, clergy, and demons.
