BBC History Magazine

Going to church in the Middle Ages

ON THE History Extra PODCAST

1 Why was attending church so important?

“In the Middle Ages, going to church offered a lot more than merely a way of connecting with God. Christianity was not only a religion, but an entire worldview that sought to explain a great deal more than people’s relationship with God. Church-going encompassed ethics, telling you how you should behave, and entire areas of study that we would now separate off as science, sociology or politics. Even history was a part of it; medieval histories of the world took a lot from the Bible.

The importance of the church in the lives of medieval people went far

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