Paganism in Conversion‐Age Anglo‐Saxon England
The Evidence of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9879597 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Church (0000-0002-8829-0019, University of East Anglia, corresponding author), S D Church |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue | 310 |
| Pages | 162-180 |
| Publication date | 2008-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2648 • E-ISSN: 1468-229X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-229x.2008.00420.x |
| OpenAlex | W2026668598 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 11 |
This article argues that the current understanding of English paganism relies too heavily on the belief that, when they wrote of the pre‐Christian religion(s) of the English, Pope Gregory I (d. 604), in the letters preserved in his Register , and the Northumbrian monk Bede (d. 735), in his Ecclesiastical History , were describing English religion before conversion to Christianity as it really was. Their purpose in discussing English paganism, it is argued, was to provide succour and support for the process by which the English would be saved from eternal damnation in the face of the coming Day of Judgement. Neither Gregory nor Bede, both of whom came to be revered as Fathers of the Church, were passive observers of the conversion process. On the contrary, both men were active participants in the eradication of error amongst the English; error whose detail they had no interest or incentive to describe empirically. These were men who answered to a greater Truth – the Truth of the Word of God. It was this Truth which, this article argues, actually informed their descriptions of English paganism and should inform our understanding of their words on this subject
Art · Christianity · Damnation · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Judgement · Linguistics · Literature · Paganism · Theology · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity
Gregory of Tours and Clovis
Gregory the Great and a papal missionary strategy
Bede's uera lex historiae explained
Churches on Roman Buildings
Bede's Vera Lex Historiae
The Mission of Augustine of Canterbury to the English
The Chronology of the Gregorian Mission to England
Beds's Northumbrian dates again
Bede and Northumbrian Chronology
Bede and Cicero
Missionaries and Magic in Dark-Age Europe
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.27 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2024 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |