Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England: Theology and Society in an Age of Faith. By Helen Foxhall Forbes. Studies in Early Medieval Britain. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2013. xvi + 394 pp. $95.16 hardcover.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England: Theology and Society in an of Faith . By Helen Foxhall Forbes . Studies in Early Medieval Britain. Burlington, Vt. : Ashgate , 2013. xvi + 394 pp. $95.16 hardcover.Book Reviews and NotesAnglo-Saxon England, from the eighth to the eleventh centuries, had a thriving ecclesiastical culture, as evidenced by the number of surviving documents containing homilies, hagiography, prayers, and religious poetry, as well as canon laws, penitentials, liturgical and pastoral works. It was indeed an Age of Faith. But did Christianity mean to ordinary people in their day-to-day lives? What was their understanding of Christian doctrine? How did they practice their beliefs? And, perhaps most importantly, Helen Foxhall Forbes asks, what did it mean to be a Christian (or to be a good Christian) in the changing social contexts of Anglo-Saxon England? (1).In this impressive study, Foxhall Forbes explores these questions through an analysis of theological texts (not all of which represent the official doctrines of the church, such as they were) alongside charters, wills, and laws in order to uncover the theological ideas which affected society's values regarding person, property, justice and mercy. Foxhall Forbes also spreads her net more widely, to include examinations of place-names, archaeology, and art; the evidence provided by topography and material culture affords further insight into the extent to which Christian ideas, beliefs and values permeated the lives of the Anglo-Saxons and how they practiced their religion.Foxhall Forbes admits that the evidence is fragmented; no lay person from this period left behind any personal statement of belief or practice. Nevertheless, by drawing together the fragments from a variety of sources, she demonstrates how they contribute to sketching out the theological and cultural landscape of Anglo-Saxon England. In chapter 1, I Believe in One God, she lays out the problems with dealing with the available evidence, problems compounded by the fact that most of the written evidence was produced by the very people who were involved in Christian learning and theological debate. The archaeological evidence, from burial sites in churchyards, and evidence of images in churches and manuscripts were likewise influenced. Foxhall Forbes questions past models of viewing faith in Anglo-Saxon, especially that of pagan and Christian syncretism, and finds them wanting. Instead, she turns her attention to the education of priests and of the laity in the fundamentals of Christianity. If religious paintings in churches were a means of teaching the laity, how were they interpreted by the parish priests? And how often did people actually attend church to receive such instruction? Foxhall Forbes offers a well-grounded argument that knowledge of Christian doctrine and dogma was not consistent in either clergy or laity, and that belief in magic and magical creatures (like elves and monsters) is not evidence of survivals of paganism.In chapter 2, Creator of All Things, Visible and Invisible, Foxhall Forbes takes up the issue of belief in spirits, the protection of angels and the assaults by demons, as well as the understanding of baptism, sickness, and the state of the soul at death in this context. …