A major study of the development of early English Church from a theological perspective, shedding new light on the early Anglo-Saxon missionaries.

In this book, Dales succeeds in shedding new light on the theological approach to the evangelism of The British Isles and the work of missionaries to and from the British Isles in the Western church throughout the period 400-800 AD. Although the historical value of the literary texts analysed is substantial, this study gives them an inherent theology pre-eminence. This reprint is thus an examination of particular people, and the beliefs they shared with those who remembered them, and who caused these texts to be written. Through these pages, we discover that the origin of hagiographical literature in this specific area comes from a remote and singular period when the memory of the Roman era and of the church fathers was ever present. It was because of the barbarous condition that the Church faced, that the stream that fought to keep Latin Christian culture alive to nurture monastic education, missionary activity and the ascetic cultivation of sanctity remained hidden.