Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England

Taylor & Francis

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. > Christian theology and religious belief were crucially important to Anglo-Saxon society, and are manifest in the surviving textual, visual and material evidence. This is the first full-length study investigating how Christian theology and religious beliefs permeated society and underpinned social values in early medieval England. The influence of the early medieval Church as an institution is widely acknowledged, but Christian theology itself is y