{"product_id":"the-god-of-this-house-christian-domestic-cult-before-constantine-9780271099873","title":"The God of This House: Christian Domestic Cult Before Constantine","description":"\u003cp\u003eChristianity is often thought of as a tradition of belief, interpretation, teachings, and texts. However, a scholarly focus on ideas overlooks how early Christian doctrine interacted with social exchanges in lay spaces. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Caroline Johnson Hodge fills this gap, shifting our attention from liturgical settings to religion as it was lived outside the prescriptions of congregations. Through a careful reading of the material record alongside print sources, Johnson Hodge shows that in the first through the early fourth centuries, Christians developed household rituals akin to traditional domestic cult practices around the Roman Empire, and this continuity contributed to the success of the new cult in the Roman world. Rather than a well-organized, universal domestic cult, Johnson Hodge finds that practices were flexible and varied, ranging widely from established household observances to unauthorized rituals, gravesite venerations, and the unpatrolled movements of women and slaves. Just as important as the official representations were the small gestures at hearths and doorways, the myriad ways in which followers of Christ incorporated their divine beings into the rituals of their households, shops, and tombs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn bringing the lived-religion approach to bear on this formative period, Johnson Hodge's study offers a fascinating portrait of a very \"pagan\" world within ancient Christianity. This book will be especially valuable to religious studies scholars and others interested in the origins of Christianity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eCaroline Johnson Hodge\u003c\/strong\u003e is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at College of the Holy Cross. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eIf Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of \u003ci\u003e\"The One Who Sows Bountifully\" Essays in Honor of Stanley K. Stowers\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penn State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51384441307410,"sku":"9780271099873","price":115.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_312a2d85-35e2-4c46-913b-fbffd56088a9.jpg?v=1750174073","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-god-of-this-house-christian-domestic-cult-before-constantine-9780271099873","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}