Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England : Theology and Society in an Age of Faith

Christian theology and religious belief were crucially important to Anglo-Saxon society, yet this book is the first full-length study investigating how it permeated and underpinned society. For whilst the influence of the Church as an institution is widely acknowledged, its abstract theological speculation is still generally considered to be the preserve of a small educated elite. However, as this book makes clear, theology had a much greater and more significant impact in the wider Saxon world than has been realised by modern scholars. The rationale of this book is that taking account of many of these beliefs allows a far greater understanding of many of the secular processes of Anglo-Saxon England which have been examined and discussed by historians. Previous studies that touch on Anglo-Saxon religious belief and ritual practices have been literary or historical in approach: such studies are valuable in their own right but have tended to focus either on sources and exemplars or on the interpretation of evidence to understand what happened on the ground.
While such scholarship is important in interpreting Anglo-Saxon texts and evidence, it has not generally taken account of the impact of theological debate on society, and how this might have affected the way individuals - particularly laity - lived their lives. Only by interpreting these processes in the light of theology and theological debate can one see the world as the Anglo-Saxons did.Using a series of case-studies, this book shows how theology interacted with and was shaped by the secular world, while also exploring the ways in which lay individuals - although isolated for the most part from the intricacies of theological discussion - nevertheless were evidently influenced by these and responded to them in their own lives and actions.