ABSTRACT
This chapter examines bathing from the perspective of religious, primarily Christian, attitudes and focuses on the relationship between bathing and religious matters. It discusses martyrdoms, miracles and healing associated with water and bathing, along with a brief overview of Christian attitudes to medicine. From the moment the new religion, Christianity, began to gain followers in the Roman Empire, its adherents found themselves in a difficult situation. The chapter describes the attitudes of some of the influential Church authors towards baths and bathing, as these were seen as potentially risky from the perspective of spiritual well-being. The bathing metaphor is further explored by Chrysostom: when compared to the spiritual “bathing”, cleansing of the soul offered by the Church, ordinary bathing is always presented as the inferior one; it is cleansing merely of the bodily dirt, while the other one purifies the soul.
