Normative Christian Discourse

This chapter surveys the normative stance of Christian authorities against the use of incantations and amulets, conveyed in treatises, sermons, saints’ lives, and ecclesiastical canons. In condemning or critiquing the use of incantations and amulets, Christian writers and bishops sought to differentiate what they considered to be ‘true’ Christians from ‘false’ or ‘lax’ Christians, pagans, and Jews. Nevertheless, the scenarios they created in their discourse reveal a slippage between what authorities urged and what Christians did. By studying amulets that have survived from Late Antiquity, one can arrive at a more nuanced understanding of how the production of amulets in an increasingly Christian context both continued and altered pre-existing practices.