Byzantine Christianity Derek Krueger (Ed.) This volume, third in this pioneering and acclaimed series of social histories of Christianity, introduces the religion of the Byzantine Christian laity by asking the question, "What did Byzantine Christians do?" During the eleven centuries between the foundation of the city of Constantinople in 324 and its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Byzantine Christianity developed as a distinct system of religious practice and devotion, different from the medieval Roman Catholicism emerging simultaneously farther west. Drawing on the techniques of social and cultural history, this international team of renowned social historians offers glimpses into that distant past. Sermons, saints' lives, hymns, canon law, and histories, together with architecture, icons, church decoration, and small devotional objects enable a rich description and lavish depiction of lay religion among ordinary Christians. We learn what ordinary Christians did in church, their homes, and their workshops; about the veneration of saints and the use of icons. We discover how Byzantine Christians prayed and how often they attended services; how they celebrated, married, and mourned; how they interacted with priests, monks, nuns, and holy people; where they went on pilgrimage and why they visited shrines; how they transmitted religious values to their children; and how they performed acts of charity. Editor - Derek Krueger is Professor of Religious Studies and head of the department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Among his many publications is Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004)