Children in Late Ancient Christianity

Description

Social, cultural, theological, and economic presentations of children offer important clues to understanding the development of Christianity and society in Late Antiquity. This volume brings together studies of a diverse collection of sources - patristic texts, apocrypha, medicinal treatises, hagiography, pseudepigrapha, papyri, and more - illuminating how children mediated the relationship between Christian thought and Late Antique society. The contributors address the existence of children's culture, medicine and healing of children, disability and deformed children, the economic condition of orphans, theological appropriations of children, the presentations of family relationships in Christian thought, monasticism and family obligations, early Christian response to pedophilia and the formation of Christian ethical identity, and the role of children in apocryphal texts. With contributions by: Reidar Aasgaard, Tony Burke, Carole Monica C. Burnett, Susan R. Holman, Cornelia B. Horn; Inta Ivanovska, Nicole Kelley, Chrysi Kotsifou, John W. Martens, Robert R. Phenix, Carrie Schroeder, Ville Vuolanto Cover Dedication Preface and Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Abbreviations Cornelia B. Horn and Robert R. Phenix: Introduction Contents Prospects for Future Research on Children in Christian Sources in Late Antiquity Reidar Aasgaard: Uncovering Children’s Culture in Late Antiquity: The Testimony of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas Was There a Children’s Culture in Late Antiquity? Challenges and Possibilities in the Study of Children’s Culture in Antiquity Settings of Children’s Cultural Life Late Antique Witnesses to Children’s Culture Narrative Material as Part of Children’s Culture The Infancy Gospel of Thomas as Case Study The Infancy Gospel of Thomas as a Children’s Story: Internal Evidence The Infancy Gospel of Thomas and Children’s Culture in Late Antiquity Strategies for Uncovering Children’s Culture Appendix: Structure and Contents of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas Tony Burke: “Social Viewing” of Children in the Childhood Stories of Jesus The IGT in Previous Scholarship Idealized Children in Antiquity Social Viewing in the IGT Conclusion Inta Ivanovska: Baptized Infants and Pagan Rituals: Cyprian versus Augustine The Problem of Religious Initiation Cyprian of Carthage (c.200–258) Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Conclusions Carole Monica C. Burnett: Mother-Child Bonding in the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church The First-Century Background Patristic Views on Motherhood and Martyrdom Early Christian Asceticism Monica Mary the Theotokos Conclusion Cornelia B. Horn: Children in Fourth-Century Greek Epistolography: Cappadocian Perspectives from the Pens of Gregory Nazianzen and Basil of Caesarea Introduction Gregory Nazianzen’s Concern for Children as Reflected in His Letters Basil of Caesarea’s Correspondence: Commenting on Children Parents and Children Children and Their Grandparents Children and Death Adults’ Perceptions of Children’s Characteristics Spiritual Childhood Children’s Participation in the Liturgy Children and Theological Reflection Children and the Option of Asceticism Children and Work Children and Classical Culture Some Conclusions Susan R. Holman: Sick Children and Healing Saints: Medical Treatment of the Child in Christian Antiquity Introduction The Sick Child: Innocent or Guilty? Finding the Child in the Text Pediatric Illness and Treatment in Greco-Roman Medicine The Hippocratic Epidemics Celsus Galen Humors and the Pediatric Body Paul of Aegina’s Therapy of Children Children in Christian Healing Miracles Pediatric Healing in Sophronius’s Miracles of Ss. Cyrus and John Affliction, Cause, and Innocence Theological Lessons Comparative Texts Conclusion Cornelia B. Horn: Approaches to the Study of Sick Children and Their Healing: Christian Apocryphal Acts, Gospels, and Cognate Literatures Introductory Comments and Plan of Work Medical Anthropology Selected Perspectives from the New Testament Manifestations of Sickness and the Child in Papyri and Ancient Popular Literature Gender and the Sick Child: Hagiographical Perspectives Effects of Healing on the Child and Its Family Context The Use of Children as Therapy Conclusions Nicole Kelley: The Deformed Child in Ancient Christianity The Exposure of Deformed Infants The Goodness of God’s Creation Sin, Fate, and Nature: Christian Writers on the Causes of Deformity Virtue and the Deformed Body Resurrection: The Deformed Body and the Afterlife Conclusion John W. Martens: “Do Not Sexually Abuse Children”: The Language of Early Christian Sexual Ethics Sexual Abuse of Children and the New Testament The “Christian” Word Paidophthoreô The “Jewish” Use of Paidophthoroi: Paidophthoreô in Christian Sources Later Christian Reception of Paidophthoreô Conclusion Ville Vuolanto: Choosing Asceticism: Children and Parents, Vows and Conflicts Ascetics against Their Parents: An Ideology of Opposition Children in Family Strategies: Asceticism and Disinheritance Making the Choice for Virginity After the Vow – Parents and Their Virgins Authority and Gender in the Family Nucleus Cornelia B. Horn: Raising Martyrs and Ascetics: A Diachronic Comparison of Educational Role-Models for Early Christian Children Introductory Remarks Raising Young Martyrs Raising Children for the Ascetic Life Mother and Daughters: or, Is Suicide Allowed to Protect One’s Virginity? Concluding Comparisons Carrie Schroeder: Children and Egyptian Monasticism Evidence for Children in the Early Periods of Egyptian Monasticism (Fourth-Early Fifth Centuries) Monastic Children’s Origins and Education in the Early Ascetic Communities The Full Integration of Children into Egyptian Monasticism Conclusions Chrysi Kotsifou: Papyrological Perspectives on Orphans in the World of Late Ancient Christianity Sources, Method, and Themes Terminology Papyri and the role of children in the Late Antique world. Petitions Private Letters Conclusions Robert Phenix: The Contribution of Social Science Research to the Study of Children and Childhood in Pre-Modern Ethiopia Introduction Studies of Children and Childhood in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe and the Near East Previous Literature on Children in Ethiopic Saints Lives The Topoi of Childhood in Studies of Ethiopic Hagiography Social Sciences in Ethiopia: An Overview Terminology and Consideration of Some Topoi Kidān and the Tano Compact Some Philological Notes Conclusions and Departures Bibliography Primary Sources Serials Cited Secondary Sources Index of Ancient Sources Bible Apocrypha Jewish Sources Classical Sources Christian Sources Index of Modern Authors Index of Selected Terms Index of Subjects