The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England: Third Edition

About this book

The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England is more than a general account of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is a probing study of the way in which Christianity was fashioned in England giving full weight to the variety of wealth of the traditions that contributed to early Anglo-Saxon Christianity. It is also a study in the process of Christianization as it was carried out by churchmen who according to Mayr-Harting prepared themselves by prayer and study and travel as well as by social awareness to Christianize their world. For this edition the author has added a new preface in which he reconsiders some of his earlier conclusions and addresses recent developments in the scholarship. In a completely new chapter Mayr-Harting appraises the work of Boniface of Devon the greatest missionary of the early Middle Ages whom he calls the "Mirror of English History." Mayr-Harting thereby extends his account of early Anglo-Saxon Christianity from the Gregorian mission of the late sixth century up to the eighth-century English mission to the Continent perhaps the crowning achievement of early English history.