Introduction
The concept of Christianization dominates scholarship on the early Middle Ages. Yet, “Christianization” is a vague, anachronistic term, applied haphazardly to group an assortment of diverse changes as if all had the same cause. Moreover, the concept treats Christianity as a “religion”: a transhistorical system of fixed doctrines and institutions separate from other spheres of life. Early medieval Christianity, however, was an evolving conglomeration of rituals, ideas, practices, and institutions. Medieval people thought that someone became a Christian not by accepting a religion, but rather by joining the Christian commonwealth (res publica christiana) through certain universal rituals—Rogationtide among them. By studying the development of Rogationtide, this book formulates a paradigm for Christianization without the need for “religion.”