Bread in the Desert: The Politics and Practicalities of Food in Early Egyptian Monasticism

The Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) offer a compelling literary perspective on the daily lives of early Egyptian monastics. The routine necessities of food and drink played a distinct part in the physical and spiritual survival of these novel monastic communities. When, what, an...

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Главный автор: Hansen, Benjamin (Автор)
Формат: Электронный ресурс Статья
Язык:Английский
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Опубликовано: Cambridge Univ. Press 2021
В: Church history
Год: 2021, Том: 90, Выпуск: 2, Страницы: 286-303
Другие ключевые слова:B Desert Fathers
B Apophthegmata
B Food and Eating in Early Christianity
B Egyptian Monasticism
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Итог:The Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Desert Fathers) offer a compelling literary perspective on the daily lives of early Egyptian monastics. The routine necessities of food and drink played a distinct part in the physical and spiritual survival of these novel monastic communities. When, what, and how much a monk ate could cause celebration or scandal. Every meal was likewise a test. This study has two purposes. First, it situates the Sayings's many references to bread, salt, oil, and fruit within the dietary possibilities of late antique Egypt. Second, and more broadly, this study highlights the place of eating (or not eating) as it relates to particular monastic notions of spiritual wellbeing. Meals were always an arena for acts of heroic asceticism, but they also served as highly charged communal confrontations, a dizzying back and forth of hospitality received or rejected, of honor and shame played out in alimentary paradoxes. In this, the Sayings bear witness to the spiritual politics of eating within Egyptian monastic culture and provide insight into the formation of late antique religious identities, betraying fundamental tensions inherent in other forms of Christian literature.
ISSN:1755-2613
Второстепенные работы:Enthalten in: Church history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0009640721001499