Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0800634128, Hardcover)

The particular excitement of this volume lies in its focus on the everyday realities of Christians' lives in the era of Christian ascendancy and Roman decline. Popular fiction, childrearing and toys, rituals of inclusion, the beginning of veneration of saints and shunning of heretics, the ascetic impulse, food practices — all these and more lend color and texture to the story of a "people's" Christianity in this formative stage.