Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church

In the first five centuries of the common era, the kiss was a distinctive and near—ubiquitous marker of Christianity. Although Christians did not invent the kiss—Jewish and pagan literature is filled with references to kisses between lovers, family members, and individuals in relationships of power and subordination—Christians kissed one another in highly specific settings and in ways that set them off from the non—Christian population.

Christians kissed each other during prayer, Eucharist, ...