The book emerged from a 2014 conference of Byzantine studies scholars at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. Among them was Robert S. Nelson, the professor of art history at Yale University who co-edited the volume with Krueger.
Krueger also contributed one of the book’s essays, exploring how clergy quoted Scripture in teachings about the lives of saints. “The vast majority of quotations are from the words of Jesus and the Gospels, usually the version that’s in Matthew and sometimes the letters of Paul,” Krueger explains. “The more learned an author expected his audience to be, the more esoteric the quotations would get.”
The finding, he says, advances understanding of a largely ignored Christian culture. “We can start talking about who was consuming biblical knowledge and what levels of biblical knowledge different people in different levels of society were expected to have.”
It also rolls over into the classroom.
“Part of being able to teach the history of Christianity starts with scholars doing this type of spade work,” he says. “We’re looking at Christianity differently and trying to tell a broader and more diverse story about it.”
