A Missing Sacrament?: Foot-washing, Gender, and Space in Early Christianity
Although the story recounted in John 13 has often been taken to suggest a communal foot-washing practice existed in some Christian communities, the actual evidence for foot-washing in earliest Christianity suggests not a communal ritual, but women and particularly widows washing the feet of prisoner...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2017
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| In: |
Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
Year: 2017, Volume: 18/19, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-122 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Johannesevangelium 13
/ John (Liturgy)
/ Church
/ Gender-specific role
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion CB Christian life; spirituality KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity RC Liturgy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Although the story recounted in John 13 has often been taken to suggest a communal foot-washing practice existed in some Christian communities, the actual evidence for foot-washing in earliest Christianity suggests not a communal ritual, but women and particularly widows washing the feet of prisoners and others confined and in need. This custom seems to have waned across the third and fourth centuries as expectations of gender roles, liturgical practice, and space shifted, while different readings of the John 13 story encouraged a variety of newer, communal, and more public foot-washing practices, including those connected to initiation, and the monastic communal washings that underlie the medieval and later pedilavium. |
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| ISSN: | 1868-8888 |
| Contains: | In: Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/arege-2016-0007 |