The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation By James C. Russell. (review)

416 BOOK REVIEWS AU in all, however, Haskins' survey of the cult of the Magdalen in the West is indeed impressive. She has an easy command of a vast body of scholarly literature that takes in diverse fields and assorted languages. I wish only that she wore her ideology as lightly as she does her learning. Katherine L. Jansen The Catholic University ofAmerica The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. By James C. Russell. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1994. Pp. xiv, 258. Í35.00.) This book is an intelligent synthesis of observations from a wide range of anthropological, historical, and other literature. The subtitle, more than the main title, suggests the actual scope and import ofthe author's revised doctoral dissertation in historical theology (Fordham University, 1990). The exposition, in fact, addresses itselfas much to today's moderators ofcross-cultural religious interaction as to students of Germanizing developments in Latin Christianity between a.d. 376 and a.d. 754. Russell's ostensible objective is to elucidate the mutually transformed patterns of belief and behavior that resulted from the conversion of Germanic societies to the rejigged version of Christianity which they could accept and which was later imposed on the popes and Rome by Otto the Great and his suite. Russell builds on the received view that Germanic socioreligious imagination and practices deeply affected ancient Christianity and helped to effect "a Eurocentric particularization ofChristianity epitomized by the concept of Christendom" (p. 190). His ultimate mapping of the Germanizing shifts in early medieval Christian belief and praxis is done with a subtle eye to this particularization, its consequences, and the attempted undoing ofit since the SecondVatican Council. The overall result is a statement of general religiohistorical interest and of equal relevance to the modern heirs of Christendom. Russell devotes roughly half the study to crafting a "Model of Religious Transformation" (Part I, pp. 1 1-103). The object is to stake out the profound differences, and the likely barriers to cross-cultural transfer without equally profound compromises, between the universal, ethical, world-rejecting religion of Christianity (an eastern system), and the folk-centered, worldaccepting religion of primitive Indo-European societies. The subject entails a great deal of definition or reconstruction of ancient world-views and praxis, and above all a rigorous definition of Christianity against which conversion or syncretism can be gauged. Christianity's success among Greeks and Romans invites a consideration of urban rootlessness and alienation as the preconditions of conversion in these evolved and altered Indo-European societies. Christian conversion, with its promise ofnew community and future salvation, BOOK REVIEWS 417 flourished where anomie prevailed. The Germanic tribes that encountered Christianity retained a high level of group solidarity and a firm attachment to the this-worldly concerns and pursuits of primitive Indo-European peoples. These folk-religious societies could not be expected to embrace a universal religion of salvation on its own terms. For any hope of success, Christian missionaries had, at least temporarily, to accommodate Germanic socioreligious expectations. Part II, "The Germanic Transformation of Christianity" (pp. 107-208), begins with a synthetic discussion of "Germanic Religiosity and Social Structure" (pp. 107-133) indebted, among others, to Georges Dumézil and subject to caveats sometimes applied to his work. Not all historians will accept his, or Russell's, use of twelfth-century sources as evidence for primordial worldviews and social patterns, and some readers will miss a discussion keyed to postmodern theory. Russell manages, however, to provide a coherent basis for spotlighting the heroic and magicoreligious adjustments necessary for Christianity to appeal to a closeknit, Germanic, military-agricultural society. In the remaining exposition, he briskly traces the vagaries and accommodations of the encounter between the Germanic peoples and Christianity from 376 to 754. Russell links specific Germanic beliefs to their correlates in a Germanized version of Christianity which, he suggests, misconstrued, at least for a time, the notions of sin and salvation essential to his objectivist definition ofChristianity. This Germanized Christianity became the norm, and sometimes the burden, of Latin Christendom. Russell tackles much ground in comparatively few, copiously annotated pages. He considers a complex of issues relevant to history, missiology, and theology, and...