Everyday Religion and Sacred Work in Roman Antiquity and Medieval Societies

Everyday Religion and Sacred Work in Roman Antiquity and Medieval Societies offers a groundbreaking exploration of religious attitudes and practices surrounding labor in Roman Antiquity and Medieval societies, bringing together diverse religious traditions and methodologies. It examines how work was imbued with religious significance, explores the practices of working people, and analyzes the boundaries between "religion" and "work" across pagan, Christian, Jewish, and Islamic contexts, spanning from ancient Rome to the later Middle Ages in Europe. The book offers a critical analysis of how premodern societies conceptualized and regulated the relationship between religion and labor, challenging modern categories and interpretations. The chapters from interdisciplinary perspectives critique the traditional narrative that a Christian valuation of work in Late Antique monasticism replaced classical disdain for labor, ultimately contributing to the emergence of capitalism. By addressing these themes, the book offers fresh insights into the cultural, social, and economic dimensions of work in ancient and medieval contexts. Ideal for students, scholars, and informed non-specialist readers, the book is particularly suited to those interested in religious studies, history, medieval studies, classics, sociology, and related fields globally.

Tony Keddie is Associate Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions and Fellow of the Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Classics and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. His publications include Class and Power in Roman Palestine (2019), The Struggle over Class (2021), and Revelation and Material Religion in the Roman East (2024). Martha G. Newman is Mary Helen Thompson Centennial Professor in the Humanities and Professor of History, emerita, at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Her publications include Cistercian Stories for Nuns and Monks (2020) and The Boundaries of Charity (1996).

Acknowledgments List of Figures List of Contributors Introduction: Everyday Religion and Sacred Work MARTHA G. NEWMAN AND TONY KEDDIE 1 "Anyone Unwilling to Work Should not Eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10b): Cautionary Tales for Research on Capitalist Labor and Religion STEVEN J. FRIESEN 2 The Sacred Work of Ephesian Silversmiths and the Discourse on Idolatrous Professions in Acts of the Apostles TONY KEDDIE 3 Visual Representations Tying Religion and Worship to Work: Pompeii and Ostia Antica (First to Third Centuries ce) JOHN R. CLARKE 4 Work, Wealth, and Worship in Roman Africa: The Cuttinus (Boglio) Stele MATTHEW M. MCCARTY 5 Wealth, Poverty, Worker Bees, and Sluggards in John Chrysostom's Commentaries on the Sages JACLYN MAXWELL 6 The Dangers of Monastic Domestic Work: Intimate Economies in a Monastic Kitchen DARLENE L. BROOKS HEDSTROM 7 "Is It Religion to Dig the Ground?" Monastic Work and Religion in Twelfth-Century Europe MARTHA G. NEWMAN 8 Rabbinic Wages and the Provision of Justice in the Medieval Islamic World PHILLIP I. LIEBERMAN 9 Worship as Work: Proxy Pilgrimage Contracts in Islamic Legal Thought MARION HOLMES KATZ 10 Women's Work, Interfaith Contact, and Labor Politics in the Late Medieval Mediterranean SARAH IFFT DECKER Afterword: Revisioning the Dreams of Everyday Work and Religion SARAH E. BOND Index