عنوان

The ransom of the soul :

(Number (ISBN

0674967585 (hardcover : alk. paper)

(Number (ISBN

9780674967588 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Number

dltt

Title Proper

The ransom of the soul :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

afterlife and wealth in early western Christianity /

First Statement of Responsibility

Peter Brown

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

xix, 262 pages :

Other Physical Details

maps ;

Dimensions

22 cm

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Text of Note

Memory of the dead in early Christianity -- Visions, burial, and memory in the Africa of Saint Augustine -- Almsgiving, expiation, and the other world: Augustine and Pelagius, 410-430 AD -- Penance and the other world in Gaul -- The other world in this world: Gregory of Tours -- Columbanus, monasticism, and the other world

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Text of Note

Marking a departure in our understanding of Christian views of the afterlife from 250 to 650 CE, The Ransom of the Soul explores a revolutionary shift in thinking about the fate of the soul that occurred around the time of Rome's fall. Peter Brown describes how this shift transformed the church's institutional relationship to money and set the stage for its domination of medieval society in the West. Early Christian doctrine held that the living and the dead, as equally sinful beings, needed each other in order to achieve redemption. The devotional intercessions of the living could tip the balance between heaven and hell for the deceased. In the third century, money began to play a decisive role in these practices, as wealthy Christians took ever more elaborate steps to protect their own souls and the souls of their loved ones in the afterlife. They secured privileged burial sites and made lavish donations to churches. By the seventh century, Europe was dotted with richly endowed monasteries and funerary chapels displaying in marble splendor the Christian devotion of the wealthy dead. In response to the growing influence of money, church doctrine concerning the afterlife evolved from speculation to firm reality, and personal wealth in the pursuit of redemption led to extraordinary feats of architecture and acts of generosity. But it also prompted stormy debates about money's proper use -- debates that resonated through the centuries and kept alive the fundamental question of how heaven and earth could be joined by human agency

Future life-- Christianity-- History of doctrines-- Early church, ca. 30-600

Wealth-- Religious aspects-- Christianity-- History of doctrines-- Early church, ca. 30-600

Number

Edition

Class number

Book number

Brown, Peter,1935-

Date of Transaction

20150507154416.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y