European Christianity in the Age of Paper

FAIN: FT-291349-23

Rabia Anne Geha Gregory
Mizzou (Columbia, MO 65211-3020)

Writing and revising the manuscript of a book examining the impact of affordable paper on the devotional practices of Christianity in medieval, Western Europe. 

NEH funding will allow me to complete writing the final chapter and finish revisions to my book project “Christian Pulp: Material Religion in the Age of Paper.” Challenging the claim that the Protestant Reformation was a sharp break marking the start of modernity, this monograph proposes that the introduction of affordable paper to western Europe in the twelfth century began a distinct phase in Christian history that continued until new communication technologies emerged in the nineteenth century. “Christian Pulp” refers both to cheap or disposable devotional tools manufactured in western Europe, and the bawdy and violent religious narratives these artifacts preserve. “Christian Pulp” is grounded in five meticulously researched case studies juxtaposing material from disparate regions to construct a new model for periodization and framed with a series of historiographical chapters that examine Protestant-influenced assumptions about the meaning of “religion.”