This volume explores the idea that survival of the Christian faith depended upon the making of these communities, of which the Christians of this period were themselves acutely – and sometimes acrimoniously – aware.

Preface, Introduction; Chapter 1. The Distuptive Impact of Christianity in Late Roman Cappadocia: 1. New Patterns of Behaviour; 2. New Histories; 3. Lost Histories; 4. Mosoch the Founder; Chapter 2. Constantinople: Christian City, Christian Landscape; Chapter 3. Communities of the Living and the Dead in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval West; Chapter 4. The Gothic Intellectual Community: The Theology of the Skeireins; Chapter 5. 'Seed-sowers of Peace': The Uses of Love and Friendship at Court and in the Kingdom of Charlemagne; Chapter 6. Scaldic Poetry and Early Christianity; Chapter 7. Heloise and the Abbey of the Paraclete; Chapter 8. Communities of Reform in the Province of Reims: The Benedictine 'Chapter General' of 1131; Background; Present Questions; The Abbots, The Abbeys; Abbots by Rank; The Veteran Abbots; The Middlers; The Freshmen; The Latecomers, The Alumni; Conclusions; Chapter 9. When Jesus Did the Dishes: The Transformation of Late Medieval Spirituality; St Joseph and His Family; Jean Gerson and the Renewal of Theological Discourse; Gerson's Jospehina: A New Spiritual Hero; The Meaning of Gerson's Devotion to St Joseph, Notes