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Spiritual Kinship Between Formal Norms and Actual Practice: A Comparative Analysis in the Long Run (from the Early Middle Ages Until Today)

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New Directions in Spiritual Kinship

Part of the book series: Contemporary Anthropology of Religion ((CAR))

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Abstract

This chapter traces the development of spiritual kinship generated by baptism in Europe from the early Middle Ages until the present. Alfani contends that early church regulations relating to spiritual kinship and godparenthood were fairly uniform across Europe, even though actual practice varied over time, geographically and locally. The Reformation ended this unity-in-diversity approach, leading to diverging theological opinions about spiritual kinship between the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches. Alfani also highlights the everyday, localized implications of godparenthood as it was employed as a means of religious guidance and also for the cementing of economic, political and familial alliances.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dondena Centre and IGIER, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

    Guido Alfani

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  1. Guido Alfani
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Religion, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    Todne Thomas

  2. Independent Researcher, Toronto, Canada

    Asiya Malik

  3. The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    Rose Wellman

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Alfani, G. (2017). Spiritual Kinship Between Formal Norms and Actual Practice: A Comparative Analysis in the Long Run (from the Early Middle Ages Until Today). In: Thomas, T., Malik, A., Wellman, R. (eds) New Directions in Spiritual Kinship. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48423-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48423-5_2

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