Carly Daniel-Hughes - A Strange Sort of Monogamy?: Sexuality, Marriage, and Salvation in Tertullian

Tertullian’s final treatise on marriage, De monogamia, has long perplexed his modern readers, for in it he turns out not to applaud marital monogamy at all, but to suggest that sexual intercourse and childbearing are ungodly, potentially damning enterprises, permitted by God only as an “indulgence.” This conclusion is striking given his earlier pronouncement in his Ad uxorem that the marital bond of two Christian believers is to be cherished. Scholars have developed various explanations to address this seeming shift in perspectives on marriage often reading it as evidence of decline or “Montanist” heresy. As a result De monogamia has received little attention from scholars, who have not reflected upon the novelty of Tertullian’s argument in that work, which disparages carnal marriage, but upholds monogamy (and not, as we might expect, virginity). 

This paper examines Tertullian’s views on sexuality particularly as they are registered in De monogamia. I show how over his writings he repeatedly frames widowhood and chastity as corporal pedagogies that prepare and discipline the fleshly body for its salvation. More particularly, I suggest that rather indicating dramatic shifts in Tertullian’s sexual ethic, instead De monogamia reveals deep inconsistencies and tensions about sexuality and sexual difference that are by-products of his discourse on the resurrection of the flesh. Tertullian holds that sexual difference will obtain in the afterlife, but sexual desire will not, a view that emerges in order to ensure individual judgment and reflects Tertullian’s materialist convictions. This same negotiation around difference and desire, I will argue, emerges in and informs his construction of “monogamy.” Drawing out this point offers a richer understanding of his sexual ethics, and the gendered character of his soteriology.  

Pierre Augustin - La description des manuscrits chrysostomiens grecs de Paris pour le programme des Codices Chrysostomici Graeci : bilan et perspectives [Cataloguing the Chrysostom Greek Manuscripts in Paris for the CCG Project : Current Status and Future Prospects]

A quick overview of the results obtained and the evolution of this project, initiated in the 1970s, will emphasize in particular the contribution of volume VII, to be published in 2011, which is devoted to the first part of the “Fonds grec ancien”of the “Bibliothèque nationale de France” (MSS Paris, BNF, Gr. 4 to 730).

Nicholas Baker-Brian - 'Not Sacrament, but Sacrilege': Manichaean Women in Christian Heresiology

This paper will look at a central aspect of the theme of the proposed Workshop, ‘Women in Manichaeism’, by investigating references to female Manichaeans in Catholic heresiology with, inevitably, an especial focus on the anti-Manichaean writings of Augustine of Hippo. It intends to examine the central role which the polemical representation of female Manichaeans played in the wider Catholic defamation of Manichaeism, principally with regard to the way in which female affiliates of the religion were portrayed according to established literary models of indecency, sexualised passivity, and religious impurity - all aspects of Catholic invectio, the intention of which was to set up a false yet persuasive distinction between Manichaean immorality on the one hand, and the exemplary mores of Catholic Christianity on the other. This paper will argue that such accounts of nefarious Manichaean ritual practices as evidenced in heresiology offered, to quote David Frankfurter, ‘a case of smoke without the merest glint of fire’.  Nevertheless, issues relating to the formulation of gender distinctions within Manichaeism can arguably be glimpsed in the attempts of heresiologists to link the allegedly debased Manichaean rituals to the theogonic details of Mani’s myth, and this paper will attempt to unpick the strategies of Catholic invective with a view to refining Manichaean conceptions of the feminine and masculine in Manichaean theology. 

Lois Farag - Heroines not Penitents: Saints of Sex Slavery in Early Monastic Sources

This paper reexamines the stories of penitent women in early monastic sources and proposes that these are not stories of penitence but rather stories of women forced into the sex slave industry who overcame their devastating forced conditions and preserved their faith, which secured their rescue from bondage. They are heroines not penitents. 

Benedicta Ward’s Harlots of the Desert, A Study of Repentance in early Monastic Sources is an excellent example of a scholarly, as well church, view of stories of repentant women that needs to be reexamined. To prove the argument the paper will focus on the stories of three women rescued from brothels by three famous monastic figures: Thaïs (rescued by Paphnutius), Paësia (rescued by John the Dwarf), and Mary (rescued by her uncle, Abba Abraham). These stories primarily portray the heroism of the saintly male characters who come to rescue these fallen women.  I will argue that these women did not choose to be prostitutes but were rather forced into sex slavery to repay the debt of their families and that the rescue efforts followed the guidelines set by the Theodosian Code (4,6,3; 15,8; NTh 18; and laws of debt). The male characters either responded to requests from these women to come to their rescue or were obligated to act based on the ecclesial obligations set by Roman law. These women persevered in their faith and worked hard to save themselves from their forced enslavement and thus deserve to be portrayed as heroines rather than penitents.

Nathan Phillips - Translating Ousia in Augustine's De Trinitate

This paper is concerned with the theoretical significance of Augustine in the historical development of the concept of ousia. There are references to the translation of ousia by essentia found throughout Augustine’s corpus; Augustine describes essentia as a ‘new word’ [novo quidem nomine]; and he is explicit about his preference for essentia instead of substantia as a translation for ousia. Augustine’s defense of the word essentia is ultimately related to the development of his understanding of the Trinity; but the background for Augustine’s preference for essentia is also related to the Manichaean controversy, as well as to the Neo-Platonic and Plotinian horizons, specifically on the problem of evil as it relates to the existence of God. This paper proposes the following objectives: 1) to discuss the historical and theoretical background to the translation of the Greek oὐσία into the Latin substantia or essentia, respectively; 2) an examination of the reasons Augustine gives for his preference for the translation of ousia by essentia; 3) the role that essentia plays in Augustine’s understanding of the Trinity, most specifically on the relation between ousia and hypostasis; 4) and finally, an appraisal of the Augustinian position vis-a-vis contemporary issues in philosophical and theological discussions. The thesis of this paper is that the priority of essentia enables Augustine to avoid the Arian position on the substantial difference of the persons of the Trinity, as well as the Sabellian position which collapses the difference of the persons back into a unity, and that, in the end, the essentia takes on for Augustine the characteristics of a divine name.

Raúl Villegas Marín - The Background to the Augustinian Controversy: Circulation, Reception, and Copying of Books in Fifth-Century Gaul

Interest in the (now currently) so-called “Augustinian controversy,” has grown in the last few years. While many recent works have focused on the theological controversy, little attention has been paid to what I call the “material background” of the dispute. The purpose of this workshop paper is to highlight the circulation, reception, and copying of Augustine's works in Marseilles and Lerins, and how this may have influenced the debate. 

Virginia Burrus - The Virgin, Her Mother, and the Virgin Mother: Mariology in the Life of St. Helia

This communication will explore the distinctive role of the Virgin Mary in The Life of St. Helia, a little-studied hagiographical work preserved in a ninth-century manuscript and a tenth-century copy, of possible late fourth- or early fifth-century Spanish provenance.  The text presents a debate between the virgin Helia and her mother in three parts, the first a private exchange, the second (by appeal of the daughter) taking place in the presence of a bishop, and the third (by appeal of the mother) taking place before a judge.  The topic of their debate is the relative merits of virginity and marriage; its method is predominately exegetical.  Novelistic narrative elements frame the polemical dialogues, including the mother’s torture of her daughter and Helia’s secret escape dressed as a man, further dramatizing the strife between mother and daughter. In this charged context, an oppositional Eve/ Mary typology is elaborated to justify virginity as a superior form of both marriage and maternity, with emphasis on the virgin’s painless and joyful fertility.  The promotion of Mary as an exemplar of feminine fertility resonates intriguingly with two pseudo-Hieronymian letters possibly deriving from the same Spanish context and likely authored by women—“Nisi tanti seminis” and “Quamlibet sciam sacerdotali”—both of which emphasize not literal child-bearing but the fruits of women’s teaching, writing, and spiritual labour.