Kissing Christians Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church
Michael Philip Penn "Penn has succeeded admirably. . . . "Kissing
Christians" has broken new ground, greatly enriching our
understanding of this important Christian liturgical ritual and
community-forming practice."--"The Medieval Review" "This
fascinating study should serve as an invitation to scholars of
ancient Christian discourse, symbol, and liturgy to take the kiss
seriously, but not only that: "Kissing Christians" invites a
reconsideration of the intersection of discourse and practice
throughout the early Christian period."--"Church History" In the
first five centuries of the common era, the kiss was a distinctive
and near-ubiquitous marker of Christianity. Although Christians did
not invent the kiss--Jewish and pagan literature is filled with
references to kisses between lovers, family members, and
individuals in relationships of power and subordination--Christians
kissed one another in highly specific settings and in ways that set
them off from the non-Christian population. Christians kissed each
other during prayer, Eucharist, baptism, and ordination and in
connection with greeting, funerals, monastic vows, and martyrdom.
As Michael Philip Penn shows in "Kissing Christians," this ritual
kiss played a key role in defining group membership and
strengthening the social bond between the communal body and its
individual members. "Kissing Christians" presents the first
comprehensive study of the ritual kiss and how controversies
surrounding it became part of larger debates regarding the internal
structure of Christian communities and their relations with
outsiders. Penn traces how Christian writers exalted those who
kissed only fellow Christians, proclaimed that Jews did not have a
kiss, prohibited exchanging the kiss with potential heretics,
privileged the confessor's kiss, prohibited Christian men and women
from kissing each other, and forbade laity from kissing clergy.
"Kissing Christians" also investigates connections between kissing
and group cohesion, kissing practices and purity concerns, and how
Christian leaders used the motif of the kiss of Judas to examine
theological notions of loyalty, unity, forgiveness, hierarchy, and
subversion. Exploring connections between bodies, power, and
performance, "Kissing Christians" bridges the gap between cultural
and liturgical approaches to antiquity. It breaks significant new
ground in its application of literary and sociological theory to
liturgical history and will have a profound impact on these fields.
Michael Philip Penn teaches religion at Mount Holyoke College.
Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion 2005 200 pages 5 1/2 x
8 1/2 ISBN 978-0-8122-3880-8 Cloth $59.95s 39.00 ISBN
978-0-8122-0332-5 Ebook $59.95s 39.00 World Rights History,
Religion Short copy: Kissing was one of the most widely practiced
early Christian rituals. "Kissing Christians" presents the first
comprehensive study of how ancient controversies concerning this
rite became part of larger debates regarding the internal structure
of ancient Christian communities and their relations with
outsiders.
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