Vision And Image In Early Christian England

This book is about the ways in which the English expressed their new convictions about this world and the next after their conversion to Christianity in the two centuries following the arrival of the disciples of Pope Gregory I. It discusses the impact of books and travel on the Anglo-Saxons, the role of art in a society constantly afflicted by wars and epidemics, and the peculiar character of the new Christian civilisation which began to flourish.

Nothing in Anglo-Saxon pagan culture could withstand the impact of Christianity after the arrival of the disciples of Pope Gregory I in England. Originally published in 1999, Professor Henderson's book investigates the ways in which the English, in the two centuries following their conversion, expressed their new convictions about this world, and the next. It deals with the impact of books and travel on the Anglo-Saxons, discusses personal sanctity and the manipulation of belief by the state, and identifies the positive role of art in a society constantly afflicted by wars and epidemics. Henderson combines new fragmentary visual and literary evidence in this carefully illustrated book to bring out the peculiar character, both sophisticated and naive, of the new Christian civilisation which began to flourish and, to a surprising degree, recreate that of sixth-century Italy in seventh- and eighth-century England. Review: Review of the hardback: 'The achievement of this book is in its evocation of an entire world, its art, literature, and politics, and of the processes which changed it.' Medium Aevum