Jennifer Wright Knust

Produced for liturgical settings and employed in a range of devotional practices, Christian manuscripts are strikingly diverse. Critical editions of these books tend to obscure their dynamic character, however, and can leave the impression that the establishment of a canon was the most important Christian concern. Yet the articulation of a Christian identity necessarily involved not only the defense and promulgation of particular books, but also new ways of thinking about sacred space and time, which in turn left traces on surviving manuscripts. By investigating the multiple interactions between the emerging Christian cults and the books this cult produced, this project reconsiders both sacred books and the human commitments that informed their manufacture.