A Sociological History of Christian Worship

by Martin D. Stringer

• ISBN13: 9780521525596
• ISBN10: 0521525594
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this book the 2000 year history of Christian worship is viewed from a sociological perspective. Martin Stringer develops the idea of discourse as a way of understanding the place of Christian worship within its many and diverse social contexts. Beginning with the Biblical material the author provides a broad survey of changes over 2000 years of the Christian church, together with a series of case studies that highlight particular elements of the worship, or specific theoretical applications. Stringer does not simply examine the mainstream traditions of Christian worship in Europe and Byzantium, but also gives space to lesser-known traditions in Armenia, India, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Offering a contribution to the ongoing debate that breaks away from a purely textual or theological study of Christian worship, this book provides a greater understanding of the place of worship in its social and cultural context.

Author Biography

Martin D. Stringer is Lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology of Religion and Head of the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	vii
Introduction: Discourse, devotion and embodiment	1	(25)
1 Early Christian worship, texts and contexts to AD 300	26	(32)
2 Worship and the Christianisation of public space, 300-600	58	(31)
3 Hegemonic discourses in the worship of empires, 600-900	89	(31)
4 The dominant discourse of cosmological Christianity, 900-1200	120	(30)
5 Accessing the demotic discourses of devotion, 1200-1500	150	(29)
6 Worship and the rise of humanistic discourses, 1500-1800	179	(30)
7 The globalisation of Christian worship, 1800-2000	209	(31)
Bibliography	240	(16)
Index	256