The Theology of Mundane Matter in Late Antiquity: Church Property, Material Resources, and Everyday Economic Practice in the Early Christian World

This article examines the practical management of material resources in late-antique Christian communities. While histories of early Christianity often concentrate on councils, creeds, bishops, and theological controversies, churches also had to manage land, buildings, oil, wax, grain, clothing, liturgical objects, donations, charitable distributions, and financial records.

The article argues that these ordinary administrative practices expressed theological convictions about stewardship, sacred ownership, accountability, justice, charity, and care for the poor. Drawing on ecclesiastical canons, the Apostolic Constitutions, writings associated with Basil of Caesarea, and evidence concerning the administration of church property, it considers the roles of bishops, clergy, ecclesiastical stewards, donors, households, and charitable networks.

Particular attention is given to the distinction between private and church property, the development of the ecclesiastical oikonomos, the material requirements of worship, the moral evaluation of donations, the organisation of relief, and the reuse or disposal of church resources. The article concludes that late-antique Christian theology was expressed not only through creeds and sermons but also through storerooms, receipts, lamps, ledgers, buildings, and distributions to those in need.