The Promotion of Christian Almsgiving
The Promotion of Christian Almsgiving
This chapter details the direct and indirect promotion of almsgiving in Christian discourse, especially in sermons where it featured regularly at times when it would be heard by a large number of the faithful. Preaching on almsgiving was more extensive in Lent, but also at times of shortage. In direct promotion or exhortation, all who could, and not only the rich, were encouraged to give alms. Almsgiving was promoted indirectly as it featured in the portrayal of holy men and women, both in sermons, but also in apocryphal texts and saints' lives, where it sometimes served as a marker of orthodoxy. Pagan almsgiving by contrast was not encouraged by sustained promotion.
Keywords: Acts, attendance, Lent, life, preaching, sermon, Sunday, treatise
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
