July 17, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS – There have been many books about bishops and kings, clerics, and theologians, but what do we know about the Christian life of "ordinary" people across the last 2,000 years of Christian history? Very little . . . until the release of a pioneering new series from Fortress Press, A People's History of Christianity: The Lived Religion of Christians in the First Two Thousand Years. The highly acclaimed first two volumes, Christian Origins and Late Ancient Christianity, were released last November. Byzantine Christianity, the newly released third volume in the series focuses on the religious lives of ordinary people and introduces the religion of the Byzantine Christian laity by asking the questions: What did ordinary Christians do in church, in their homes, and their workshops? How were icons used? How did the people celebrate, marry, and mourn? Where did they go on pilgrimage?

Contributors include:
Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Vasiliki Limberis, Temple University
Georgia Frank, Colgate University
James Skedros, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
Nicholas Constas, Harvard University
Sharon Gerstel, University of Maryland
Peter Hatlie, University of Dallas at Rome
Charles Barber, University of Notre Dame
Brigitte Pitarakis, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
Alice-Mary Talbot, Dumbarton Oaks
Jaclyn Maxwell, Ohio University

"These stories may come up from the basement of church history, but news about their existence deserves to be shouted from the housetops." – Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago Divinity School

"This is a marvelous book: a lively, engaging doorway into the daily experiences of Byzantine peoples. Vividly drawn and richly varied, the essays take us from the exalted to the mundane, from the exquisite to the ordinary. Many books cordon off religion to a separate category of discussion from other historical matters. For pre-modern history, such severance distorts the familiar, quotidian structures by which societies and cultures functioned. In Byzantine Christianity, that common fallacy is corrected through a dazzling array of literary, documentary, artistic and archaeological evidence. The authors guide us with steady hands, scrupulous care, and bold historical reconstructions. A feast throughout!" – Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University

"What ordinary Christians did in distant periods has an obvious interest, but is not easily studied. Through a series of series of essays of uniformly high quality and at times striking originality, the authors of Byzantine Christianity detail many aspects of daily life: how Christians prayed before meals and while they worked, how they protected themselves against evil forces of all sorts with amulets and other talismans, how they aspired to look at icons with tear-filled eyes, how the faith was taught to the young and practiced by women; and even how many ecclesiastical holidays the people of Constantinople celebrated: 120 plus an additional 43 half days. For too long, Anglophone histories of Christianity have focused only on Western Europe and America. Byzantine Christianity reveals worlds that are familiar and unfamiliar in ways that general readers will find fascinating and meaningful." – Robert Nelson, Yale University, author of Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2004)

"This volume of ten essays by recognized scholars in the field provides a kaleidoscope of views on the religious experience of the women, men and children in the Byzantine Empire, thus offering an alternative medieval Christianity for those familiar with the West, and a counterpoint to the elite and monastic experience that has dominated Byzantine studies. The contributions are both original, and thus of appeal to specialists, and substantial, and thus useful introductions. They represent a fruitful combination of evidence-driven pieces (including a welcome dose of archaeological and art historical material) and theme-based studies. The further benefit of the volume for students and scholars lies in the rich illustrations, detailed bibliographies and block quotes from primary sources. There is no comparable publication available, and this volume will hold its own for a long time to come." – Claudia Rapp, Associate Professor, UCLA, author of Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition

Derek Krueger, editor of Byzantine Christianity, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and head of the department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Among his many publications is Symeon the Holy Fool: Leontius's Life and the Late Antique City (University of California Press, 1996).

Byzantine Christianity: A People's History of Christianity, Volume 3, Edited by: Derek Krueger, (Includes an actively maintained Web site for each volume, keeping students abreast of current research), Format: 7" x 9," hardcover, 336 pp, ISBN: 0-8006-3413-6, Price: $35.00.

Christian Origins: A People's History of Christianity, Vol. 1, Edited by Richard A. Horsley, Format: 7" x 9," hardcover, 256 pp, ISBN: 0-8006-3411-X, Price: $35.00.

Late Ancient Christianity: A People's History of Christianity, Vol. 2, Edited by Virginia Burrus, Format: 7" x 9," hardcover, 256 pp, ISBN: 0-8006-3412-8, Price: $35.00.

Publisher: Fortress Press

To order volumes from A People's History of Christianity please please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press