Servants of God, slaves of the church : service as religious metaphor and social reality in early medieval Europe / Lisa Kaaren Bailey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bailey, Lisa Kaaren, 1974- Author.

Series:

Medieval societies, religions, and cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Metaphor--Social aspects--Europe--History--To 1500.

Metaphor.

Metaphor--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Slavery--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Slavery.

Christianity--Social aspects--Europe--History--To 1500.

Christianity.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca ; London : Cornell University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"In Servants of God, Slaves of the Church, Lisa Kaaren Bailey uncovers the surprising intimacy between sacred devotion and coerced labor in early medieval Europe. From queens who scrubbed monastery floors to enslaved women forced into lifelong service, acts of humility and acts of subjugation often looked the same and were interpreted through the same religious lens. Drawing from sermons, letters, miracle stories, and hagiographies, Bailey shows how metaphors of service shaped not only elite piety but also the lived experience of those at the very bottom of the social order.This is a story of lives that were often absent from the historical record: those who lit church lamps, laundered liturgical linens, and sustained Christian worship through their unseen labor. Bailey weaves together theology, cultural history, and feminist historiography to trace how Christian ideas about virtue, sin, and the will both justified unfreedom and offered tools to contest it. Her use of "critical fabulation" animates the archive without fictionalizing it, allowing glimpses of agency in places where it was rarely recorded."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"How do we write a history of the voiceless and violated?"

Service in the early Middle Ages

Servants of God

Slaves of the church

Grace, free will, sex, and sin.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed March 16, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Bailey, Lisa Kaaren, 1974- Servants of God, slaves of the church

ISBN:

9781501785764

1501785761

9781501785771

150178577X

OCLC:

1573147907

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license