Jonathan Sumption
Fingering the Evidence
Holy Bones, Holy Dust: How Relics Shaped the History of Medieval Europe
By Charles Freeman
Yale University Press 306pp £25
The veneration of relics is one of the most ancient and enduring practices of the Christian Church. It is attested by unimpeachable evidence as early as the second century and is almost certainly older than that. It persists, albeit in a more moderate and controlled form, to the modern day, as the occasional exhibitions of the Turin shroud and the blood of St Januarius in Naples attest.
In the first centuries, when Christianity drew most of its adherents from the educated aristocracy and urban middle class of the late Roman Empire, the veneration of relics drew its main impulse from the desire of Christians to commemorate the lives of Christian heroes, generally local victims of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
‘The Second World War was won in Oxford. Discuss.’
@RankinNick gives the question his best shot.
Nicholas Rankin - We Shall Fight in the Buttery
Nicholas Rankin: We Shall Fight in the Buttery - Oxford’s War 1939–1945 by Ashley Jackson
literaryreview.co.uk
For the first time, all of Sylvia Plath’s surviving prose, a massive body of stories, articles, reviews and letters, has been gathered together in a single volume.
@FionaRSampson sifts it for evidence of how the young Sylvia became Sylvia Plath.
Fiona Sampson - Changed in a Minute
Fiona Sampson: Changed in a Minute - The Collected Prose of Sylvia Plath by Peter K Steinberg (ed)
literaryreview.co.uk
The ruling class has lost its sprezzatura.
On porky rolodexes and the persistence of elite reproduction, for the @Lit_Review: