Description
Book SynopsisIn this provocative book Éric Rebillard challenges many long-held assumptions about early Christian burial customs. For decades scholars of early Christianity have argued that the Church owned and operated burial grounds for Christians as early as the...
Trade ReviewÉric Rebillard amasses a vast array of second- through fifth-century Christian literature in an attempt to systematically dispel any notion that Church institutions had much to do with the dead bodies of their community. Cemetery space, unless it was inhabited by a saint, was not considered sacred, grave robbing was a civil matter, and belief in resurrection of the dead had little influence on the fate of the Christian corpse—these are just some of the conclusions reached in this important revisionist work.
* Religious Studies Review *
The importance of Éric Rebillard's book lies in that it establishes beyond any doubt that in the early centuries the Church was not concerned with taking control of the care and commemoration of the dead, but treated these matters as being within the sphere of decisions taken by families and subject to established custom and law.
* Journal of Ecclesiastical History *
