Early Christian Churches and Landscapes in Britain and Ireland

Citation

Pickles T & Foster SM (eds.) (2022) Early Christian Churches and Landscapes in Britain and Ireland. Studies in the Early Middle Ages (SEM). Turnhout: Brepols. http://www.brepols.net/Pages/BrowseBySeries.aspx?TreeSeries=SEM

Abstract
From the fourth to the eleventh centuries the first Christian churches and landscapes were established across Britain and Ireland. This was a transnational and transformational phenomenon involving economic, social, cultural, and political exchanges between the Brittonic, Irish, Pictish, English, and Old Norse speaking peoples. Yet researchers of the evidence face three key problems. First, there is no comprehensive catalogue of the textual, material, and onomastic evidence for churches in any region of Britain and Ireland, and research often proceeds by discipline. Second, there are regional variations in the nature, quantity, and quality of that evidence. Third, early medieval linguistic, ethnic, religious and political boundaries did not correspond to modern boundaries, yet research is often pursued within modern nations. Basic questions lack conclusive answers. How many types of churches existed? What were their defining characteristics? What was the chronology of church building? What regional patterns exist? Are these genuine or the result of differential survival of evidence? This volume results from an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded Research Network and is designed to help us move research forward. It brings together scholars from across Britain and Ireland to consider all the evidence across disciplines. It provides critical reviews of the state of the evidence and field. It presents new research based on case studies that span language groups and evidence types or focus on non-normative evidence, regions, and approaches.

Notes
Output Status: Forthcoming