Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity

381 Pages·2008·10.16 MB·English

by  Kimberly Diane Bowes

PRIVATE WORSHIP, PUBLIC VALUES, AND RELIGIOUS
CHANGE IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Conventional histories of late antique Christianity tell the story of a public insti
tution - the Christian church. In this book, Kim Bowes relates -another history,
that of the Christian private. Using textual and archaeological evidence, she exam
ines the Christian rituals of home and rural estate, which took place outside the
supervision of bishops and their agents. These domestic rituals and the spaces in
which they were performed were rooted in age-old religious habits. They formed
a major, heretofore unrecognized force in late ancient Christian practice.
The religion of home and family, however, was not easily reconciled with that of
the bishop's church. Domestic Christian practices presented challenges to episcopal
authority and posed thorny questions about the relationship between individuals
and the Christian collective. As Bowes suggests, the story of private Christianity
reveals a watershed in changing conceptions of "public" and "private," one whose
repercussions echo through contemporary political and religious debate.
Kim Bowes is assistant professor of classics at Cornell University. She has published
on subjects ranging from Christian archaeology and domestic architecture to
settlement dynamics and the late Roman economy, and she has excavated Roman
and late Roman sites around the Mediterranean.

Private Worship, Public values,
and Religious Change in Late
Antiquity
KIM BOWES
Cornell University
"",~"", CAMBRIDGE
::: UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Kim Bowes 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bowes, Kimberly Diane, 1970-
Private worship, public values, and religious change in late antiquity I Kim Bowes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-88593-5 (hardback)
1. Worship - History - Early church, ca. 30-600. 2. Church history - Primitive and early
church, ca. 30-600. 1. Title.
Bv6.B69 2008
270.2-dc22 2007049089
ISBN 978-0-521-88593-5 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLS for external or
third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such
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Contents
List of fllustrations ~ ix
Acknowledgments ~ xiii
Abbreviations ~ xv
Introduction ~ 1
Histories of Late Antiquity Christianity and the Challenge of Private Worship ~ 4
Histories of Private Worship ~ 8
Defining the Private ~ 12
Book Structure ~ 15
CHAPTER I. An Empire of Family and Friends: Public and Private
in Roman Religions ~ 18
Public and Private in Roman Religion ~ 20
Public and Private as Legal Categories ~ 20
The Public Priesthoods: Family and Patronage ~ 21
Consecratio/Dedicatio: Marking Public and Private Religious Space ~ 24
Household Cults and Their Public Roles ~ 27
Public and Private in the ((Unofficial Cults" ~ 37
Superstitio and Magia: Tensions between Public and Private ~ 44
Communal and Private in Second- and Third-Century Christianity ~ 48
From Home to House Church: The Christian Collective in Flux ~ 49
Christian Private Ritual ~ 52
Private and Collective Ritual in Christian Thought ~ 56
Conclusions: Public and Private in Roman Polytheist and Christian
Thought ~ 58
v
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 2. Two Christian Capitals: Private Worship in Rome
and Constantinople ~ 61
Rome ~ 63
Pre-Constantinian Realities ~ 63
The Roman tituli ~ 65
Going to Church in Fourth- and Early Fifth-Century Rome: The Continuation
of House-Churches ~ 71
The Home as Church: Domestic Piety and the Conversion of Rome's Elite ~ 75
Contesting the Private in Rome ~ 99
Constantinople ~ 103
Fourth-Century Realities ~ 103
Constantinople's Christian Topography: A City of Private Churches ~ 106
Bishops and Private Churches ~ 116
Monks and the Private ~ 120
Conclusions ~ 123
CHAPTER 3. "Christianizing" the Countryside: Rural Estates
and Private Cult ~ 125
The Fourth-Century Countryside ~ 127
The Forms if Estate Worship: Villa Churches, Mausolea,
and ((Monasteries)) ~ 129
Intra-Villa Churches ~ 130
Mausolea, with a Twist ~ 135
Extra-Villa Churches ~ 146
Estate Asceticism ~ 152
Estate-Based Clergy ~ 157
Social Qualities if Estate-Based Christianity ~ 158
Bishops and Rural Elites: Estate Christianity in Local Context ~ 161
Working with Bishops: North Africa ~ 162
What Bishop? Northern Italy, Britain, and the Absence of the Church
Hierarchies ~ 170
Bishops versus Elites: Hispania and Southwestern Gaul ~ 179
Conclusions ~ 187
CHAPTER 4. Ideologies of the Private: Private Cult and the
Construction of Heresy and Sanctity ~ 189
Contesting Private Worship: Heresy and the Home ~ 191
Roman Law and Christian Law: Ideologies of Private Cult ~ 196
Homes on the Defensive ~ 200
Promoting Private Worship: Constructing Ideals if Female Sanctity ~ 202
The Private in the Vita Macrina ~ 208
The Private and Female Heresy ~ 212
Conclusions: Debating the Private ~ 214
VI
CONTENTS
Conclusions,""", 217
Private Worship and the "Christianization" of the Aristocracy'""'" 218
Private Worship and Sacred Space '""'" 220
Private Worship and Christian Memory '""'" 222
Towards the Middle Ages and Beyond '""'" 222
Notes'""'" 227
Bibliography '""'" 293
Index,""", 343
vu