Unlike much of early medieval Europe, the early English converted to Christianity through missional efforts, not martial conquest. Thus early English converts had freedom to construct their Christian identity, producing a religious subjectivity that differed from the Latinate perspective of the missionaries who converted them. This book investigates lay texts to undermine monolithic conceptions of medieval Christianity by revealing a uniquely English religious subjectivity evident in Old English wisdom literature.

David G. Pedersen, College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri, USA.