Owen Phelan is Associate Professor of Church History at Mount Saint Mary's University. Dr. Phelan works on Church History, History of Christianity, and Medieval History. He specializes in the study of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. He is the co-editor of Rome and Religion in the Medieval World: Studies in Honor of Thomas F.x. Noble with Valerie L. Garver (Ashgate, 2014).

"This work is laboriously documented and replete with historical detail that supports Phelan's thesis The breadth and depth of his textual examination, including theological, liturgical, and political texts, make The Formation of Christian Europe an impressive work of historical scholarship. Yet Phelan's study of the sacramentum and the development of baptismal formation also makes his work useful to theologians. As such, his work holds a strong appeal across academic disciplines."--Sean Robertson, Reading Religion

"Highly recommended." --CHOICE

"Owen Phelan has made an invaluable contribution to early Carolingian studies. He has convincingly argued the case for baptism as one of the most significant components in the proper ordering of the imperium christianum, and has opened an invaluable window into the minds of Early Carolingian reformers as they attempted to develop a theological and eschatological blueprint for the Early Carolingian empire of Charlemagne and his successors." --Church History