The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian EraThe Suffering Self is a ground-breaking, interdisciplinary study of the spread of Christianity across the Roman empire. Judith Perkins shows how Christian narrative representation in the early empire worked to create a new kind of human self-understanding - the perception of the self as sufferer. Drawing on feminist and social theory, she addresses the question of why forms of suffering like martyrdom and self-mutilation were so important to early Christians. This study crosses the boundaries between ancient history and the study of early Christianity, seeing Christian representation in the context of the Greco-Roman world. She draws parallels with suffering heroines in Greek novels and in martyr acts and examines representations in medical and philosophical texts. Judith Perkins' controversial study is important reading for all those interested in ancient society, or in the history `f Christianity. |
From inside the book
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... particular gratitude for their generosity. Special thanks are also due James Tatum for his editing and considerably improving what is now Chapter 5; Allen Ward for his help on Chapter 4; and Jay Francis for allowing me to read his book ...
... particular gratitude for their generosity. Special thanks are also due James Tatum for his editing and considerably improving what is now Chapter 5; Allen Ward for his help on Chapter 4; and Jay Francis for allowing me to read his book ...
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... particular manner? what purpose is served for their authors and readers by these kinds of discourses? The power of discourse inheres precisely in this remarkable ability it has to set its agenda and mask the fact that its representation ...
... particular manner? what purpose is served for their authors and readers by these kinds of discourses? The power of discourse inheres precisely in this remarkable ability it has to set its agenda and mask the fact that its representation ...
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... particular preoccupations and intentions. In this study I want to identify a particular preoccupation in the discursive climate of the early Roman empire. From a number of different locations, narratives were projecting a particular ...
... particular preoccupations and intentions. In this study I want to identify a particular preoccupation in the discursive climate of the early Roman empire. From a number of different locations, narratives were projecting a particular ...
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... particular Michel Foucault, have offered that concepts of what constitutes “human nature” change over time, as human subjects learn to apprehend themselves in new and differing ways. Humans do not possess a nature; rather, they acquire ...
... particular Michel Foucault, have offered that concepts of what constitutes “human nature” change over time, as human subjects learn to apprehend themselves in new and differing ways. Humans do not possess a nature; rather, they acquire ...
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... particular “subjectivities,” i.e., particular forms of selfunderstandings and particular social worlds that generate certain kinds of social power. The dominant power in a society is recognized as being sustained through the domination ...
... particular “subjectivities,” i.e., particular forms of selfunderstandings and particular social worlds that generate certain kinds of social power. The dominant power in a society is recognized as being sustained through the domination ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
2 Marriages as Happy Endings
| 41 |
3 Pain Without Effect
| 77 |
4 Suffering and Power
| 104 |
The Acts of Peter
| 124 |
6 The Sick Self
| 142 |
7 Ideology Not Pathology
| 173 |
The Community of Sufferers
| 200 |
Notes | 215 |
Bibliography | 228 |
Index | 247 |
Other editions - View all
The Suffering Self: Pain and Narrative Representation in the Early Christian Era Judith Perkins No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles Tatius actions Acts of Peter Aelius Aristides ancient Anthia Aristides Asclepius Blandina bodily Callirhoe Chaereas Chariton chastity Christ Christian community Christian discourse Christianity’s civic Clitophon constructed contemporary context Contra Celsum couple’s cultural death Democritus demonstrated depicted described Dinocrates displayed divine doctors dream early empire elite emperor emphasis endurance Epictetus Eudemus example explained explicitly father focus focused Foucault function Galen genre god’s Greek romances Habrocomes hagiography healing Hermocrates human ideological Ignatius individual Justin knowledge Konstan Leucippe Leucippe and Clitophon Lives Lucian MacMullen Marcellus Marcus Aurelius marriage martyr Acts martyrdom medicine Melite nature novel offered pagan pain particular Peregrinus period Perpetua persecution person philosopher physical pirates plot Prognosis prohairesis readers recognized rejected representation represented resurrection role Roman empire saints second century sick Simon slave social society society’s soul Stoic suffering body suggested traditional understanding wellborn woman Xenophon