ABSTRACT
Any article-length attempt to look at how Christians read the Scriptures over a period of centuries must inevitably be partial in the range of subjects it addresses. This is further complicated for the early medieval period by the nature of the evidence that survives which gives prominence to certain aspects of Christian living while telling us next to nothing of other areas. This chapter presents a series of overlapping "excavations" all of which can be linked to a period of just over a century, roughly late seventh to early ninth century, when we find a mature academic culture in Ireland, but before the impact of the Carolingian restructuring of education. It also presents a sequence of six explorations, each concerned with a different aspect of the Church's life, which taken together may form a picture of how these communities read and used the Scriptures in building their world.
