Revised thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Cambridge, 2012. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents:
Sextus between Hellenistic and Christian morality -- The sentences of Sextus : reception and interpretation -- Introduction -- The testimony of origen -- Sextus in Contra Celsum -- The sentences among radical ascetics -- Controversies over the sentences in Latin Christianity -- Rufinus' Latin Sextus : a manual of asceticism -- Jerome : the sentences and moral perfectionism -- The sentences and the Pelagian understanding of sin -- The Later Ascetic tradition up to the modern era -- Evagrius of Pontus and the Armenian Sextus -- The sentences in Egypt and Syria -- Sextus in the monastic tradition of the west -- From the monastic scriptorium to the printing press -- Sextus in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- The first critical studies -- Sextus in nineteenth-century German scholarship -- The beginning of the twentieth century -- The sentences of Sextus in the modern scholarly debate -- Sextus between Hellenistic and Christian morality -- Self-sufficiency as an ascetic practice in the Sentences -- Sextus in recent scholarship -- Conclusion -- Looking forward -- Sextus and sexual morality : castration, celibacy and procreation -- Introduction -- Sext. 12-13 and 273 : the problem of castration -- Self-castration in the sentences -- Literal and allegorical castration -- From suicide to castration -- Sext. 230a : celibacy in the sentences of Sextus -- Companions of God? : variations on Paul -- The special bond between God and the ascetic continent -- Sextus, procreation and the Pythagorean tradition -- Marriage in Sextus and Clitarchus -- The ... husband in Sext. 231 -- Aborting procreationism -- The diet of love -- Conclusion -- Looking forward -- Sages without property : the example of Sext. 15-21 -- Introduction -- The ... in Sextus -- Dispossession and freedom -- Poverty as godlike self-sufficiency -- Self-sufficiency as an ascetic practice in the Sentences -- A sage in the world : philanthropy, purity and separation -- Ascetic Christians in a Cynic's Rags? -- Poor sages and poor monks -- Sextus and Caesar's Denarius -- "To the world the things of the world" (Sext. 20) -- The rule of necessity -- Sextus' interpretation and Alexandrian Christianity -- Sextus and wealth : further pagan and Christian interactions -- Conclusion -- Looking forward -- Wordiness, brevity and silence in Sextus -- Introduction -- The dangers of Wordiness -- Idle, thoughtless talking -- Prov 10:19 LXX in Sext. 155 -- Sextus and brevity -- The words and the Word : brevity as a theological and moral problem -- "Wisdom accompanies brevity of speech" (Sext. 156) -- Sextus' Laconic Sage -- Concise Socrates, concise Moses, concise Jesus -- From brevity to silence -- The austerity of the Christian sage -- Conclusion -- Looking Forward -- The social life of the Ascetic sage -- Introduction -- A sage in the world : philanthropy, purity and separation -- Conclusion -- Wisdom as an act of purification -- The world as a separate entity in Sextus -- The Sage's solitude -- From cosmopolitism to political disengagement -- Seclusion and the quest for wisdom -- Contemplation and Imitation -- The soul's journey towards God -- Contemplation and imitation of God -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- Index of subjects. Index of references -- Index of authors -- Index of subjects.
Series:
Studies and texts in antiquity and Christianity ; 1436-3003 ; 78 Studies and texts in antiquity and Christianity ; 78
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