Ville Vuolanto: Family dynamics, children and asceticism in Late Antiquity. The case of Theodoret of Cyrrhus

Before the rise of Christianity, to remain unmarried was not an alternative for an individual in Greco-Roman culture. However, asceticism became a widespread phenomenon and the most highly valued lifestyle in the early Christian world, and it quickly found its way to the every-day life of the contemporary families and households.

The particulars of this cultural change are discernible for the historian as the ecclesiastical writers needed to adapt the ascetic interpretations of Christianity to dominant values both in the eyes of the contemporary ‘general public’, and in their own lives. These discussions over asceticism and family are most clearly visible in the autobiographical writings, in which the authors reflect their own experiences. In this presentation, I will approach these processes from the point of view of one individual, Theodoret of Cyrrhus. Unlike the much-cited biographical details in the Confessiones of Augustine of Hippo, the notes by Theodoret on his own life, interwoven in the biographies of hermits in his work Historia Religiosa (from the early 440’s), have been seldom used for the study of social history of late antiquity.

I will concentrate on three main themes in Theodoret’s narrative: Firstly, on the importance of religion as a socializing agent in Late Antiquity; secondly, on the interplay between competing values of asceticism and family life; and thirdly, on the dynamics between authority of the parents and agency of the child.