We are pleased to announce the release of the book from UC Press, The Rich and the Pure: Philanthropy and the Making of Christian Society in Early Byzantium, by Daniel Caner.
The Rich and the Pure: Philanthropy and the Making of Christian Society in Early Byzantium,
Transformation of the Classical Heritage 62; University of California Press, 2021
This is a cultural and social history about Christian philanthropy, the notion of sacred wealth, and the people who used or supplied it in the eastern Roman Empire, ca. 350-650 CE. Besides examining the early Christian concept and promotion of philanthropia itself, it shows how this concept was articulated through five different but inter-related gift ideals: alms, charity, blessings, fruit-offerings or fruit-bearings, and liturgical offerings. As a cultural history, it seeks to explain what these ideals meant to lay and ascetic Christians; as a social history, it seeks to explain how these ideals were meant to define different types of relationships, and how they were shaped by social concerns.