Body and Gender, Soul and Reason in Late Antiquity
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A01=Gillian Clark
ascetic practices
Ascetic Women
Author_Gillian Clark
Barbarian Wisdom
Barren
Bramble
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Category=QDTK
Celibates
Christian anthropology
Christian Ascetic
Christian Ascetics
Christian Church
CMG
Cosmic Sympathies
Diogenes
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Fourth Century Christians
gender and spirituality
Graeco Roman Culture
Holy Men
John Chrysostom
Judaeo Christian Scriptures
Late Antique
late antique philosophy
Late Platonist Philosophy
philosophical perspectives on body and soul
Porphyry's Treatise
Porphyry’s Treatise
Pythagorean Life
rational soul
resurrection debates
Sea Water
Timeless
Violate
Young Men
Product details
- ISBN 9781409423751
- Weight: 920g
- Dimensions: 150 x 224mm
- Publication Date: 28 Jun 2011
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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What does it mean to say that a human being is body and soul, and how does each affect the other? Late antique philosophers, Christians included, asked these central questions. The papers collected here explore their answers, and use those answers to ask further questions, reading Iamblichus, Porphyry, Augustine and others in their social and intellectual context. Among the topics dealt with are the following. Humans are mortal rational beings, so how does the mortal body affect the rational soul? The body needs food: what foods are best for the soul, and is it right to eat animal foods if animals are less rational than humans? The body is gendered for reproduction: are reason and the soul also gendered? Ascetic lifestyles may free our bodies from the limitations of gender and desire, so that our souls are free to reconnect with the divine; but this need must be balanced with the claims of family and society. Philosophers asked whether life in the body is exile for the soul; Christians defended their claim that body as well as soul would live after death, and even the smallest fragment of a martyr's body is proof of resurrection.
Until her retirement in 2010, Professor Gillian Clark was Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol, UK.
