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Course SCHEDULE

Readings: RR 14-42

               BF 1-26

               *Richard Valantasis, “Constructions of Power in Asceticism,” MS 14-50 (also in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63 [1995]: 775-821)

Presentations: No presentations

Readings: *“Cynic Epistles (Selections),” and Musonius Rufus, “On Training (Peri Askeseôs),” from Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Vincent Wimbush (Continuum, 1990), 117-33

               BS 5-32

               BF 27-79

               *James Francis, Subversive Virtue: Asceticism and Authority in the Second-Century Pagan World (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 1-19

               *Richard Valantasis, “Musonius Rufus and Greco-Roman Ascetical Theory,” MS 279-98 (also in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 40 [1999]: 207-31)

Presentations: Gerd Theissen, Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity; chapter from Dale B. Martin, Sex and the Single Savior

Readings: *Jerome, Letter 22 in Christianity in Late Antiquity, ed. Bart Ehrman and Andrew Jacobs (Oxford, 2003), 270-90

               BF 79-219

               BS 160-77 and 366-86

               *Patricia Cox Miller, “Dreaming the Body: An Aesthetics of Asceticism,” in Asc 281-300

Presentations: Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology

Readings: Selections from the Old Testament and New Testament

               BS 33-64

               RR 45-69; 204-258; 330-370

Presentation: Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity

Readings:  *The Life of Pelgia/os in Christianity in Late Antiquity, 404-16

               BF 220-254

               BS 83-102 and 241-58

               *Gillian Clark, “Women and Asceticism in Late Antiquity: The Refusal of Status and Gender,” in Asc 33-48

               *Joan Wallach Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” in Gender and the Politics of History

Presentations: Matthew Kuelfer, The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity; Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests

Readings:  *Acts of Thecla

               *Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity

               *Jerome, On the Perpetual Virginity of Mary

               BS 140-59, 285-322, 341-65

               RR 177-203

               *Kristen Hastrup, “The Semantics of Biology: Virginity,” in Defining Females: The Nature of Women in Society (Berg, 1993 [2d]), 34-50

Presentations: Kate Cooper, The Virgin and the Bride; David Hunter, “Helvidius, Jovinian, and the Virginity of Mary in Late Fourth-Century Rome,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1 (1993): 47-71; Marina Warner, Alone of Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary

Readings:   BS 366-427

               *Jason BeDuhn, “Manichaean Asceticism,” in Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice, ed. Richard Valantasis (Princeton, 2000), 122-30

               *Jason BeDuhn, “The Battle for the Body in Manichaean Asceticism,” Asc 513-19

               *Selections from St. Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality, ed. Elizabeth A. Clark (Catholic University Press, 1999), 32-60

Presentations: David Hunter, “Resistance to the Virginal Ideal in Late-Fourth-Century Rome: The Case of Jovinian,” Theological Studies 48 (1987): 45-64

Readings: *Selection from Athanasius, Life of Antony from Christianity in Late Antiquity, 368-77

              *Eucherius, In Praise of the Desert from Lives of the Jura Fathers, ed. Tim Vivian (Cistercian Press, 1999)

                  * Jerome, Life of Hilarion

               Jerome, Letter 3

               BS 213-40

               *James Goehring, “The Encroaching Desert: Literary Production and Ascetic Space in Early Christian Egypt,” in Ascetics, Society, and the Desert 73-89

Presentations: Philip Rousseau, “The Pious Household and the Virgin Chorus: Reflections on Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Macrina,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 13 (2005): 165-86

Readings:   Rule of Pachomius (in four parts: 1; 2; 3; 4; and an introduction by Jerome)

               Rule of Benedict (in three parts: 1; 2; 3)

               *Caesarius of ArlesÂ’ Rule for Nuns from WomenÂ’s Lives in Medieval Europe (Routledge, 1993), 221-31

               *James Goehring, “Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the Development of Village Monasticism in Upper Egypt,” Harvard Theological Review 89 (1996): 267-285

               *Michel Foucault, “The Battle for Chastity,” repr. in Religion and Culture: Michel Foucault, ed. Jeremy Carette (Routledge, 1999), 188-97

Presentations: Caroline T. Schroeder, Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe

Readings: BS 428-47 (and new edition preface)

               *Averil Cameron, “Ascetic Closure and the End of Antiquity” in Asc 147-61

               *Geoffrey Galt Harpham, “Asceticism and the Compensations of Art,” in Asc 357-68

               *Max Weber, “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (warning, very large file!)

Presentations: Presentation of final paper topics

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