The Care of the Dead in Late Antiquity

In this provocative book Éric Rebillard challenges many long-held assumptions about early Christian burial customs . For decades scholars of early Christianity have argued that the Church owned and operated burial grounds for Christians as early as the third century. Through a careful reading of primary sources including legal codes, theological works, epigraphical inscriptions, and sermons, Rebillard shows that there is little evidence to suggest that Christians occupied exclusive or isolated b