The rhetoric of the pious empire and the rhetoric of flight from the world : a socio-rhetorical reading of the life of Melania the Younger

"This book aims to shed new light on asceticism of the heart and imperial Christian aspects in the ascetic life of Melania the Younger, in particular, and of a specific group of Roman aristocratic ascetic women, in general. The author draws on the examination of rhetorical language and textual production of the Life of Melania the Younger written in the fifth century. In so doing, the author investigates the broader religious and socio-cultural contexts of the two forms of conflicting rhetorics in the text, according to socio-rhetorical criticism. The tension of the dual subjectivity arising from the asceticism of the heart and the ideological and material aspects of Christian imperialism in the context of Jerusalem and Constantinople takes the reader into unexplored intellectual territory."-- Publisher's website Cover Table of Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Hagiography, Roman Women’s Asceticism of the Heart, Jerusalem, and Empire 1. Overview of this Study 2. Overview of Recent Studies on Hagiography and Ascetic Women in Late Antique Christianity 3. The Location of this Study in Recent Studies on Late Antique Christian Holy Women 4. Methodology 4.1. Rhetoric and the Socio-Religious Rhetorical Approach in this Study 4.2. Text and Context, and the Approach of this Study 4.3. This Study’s Approach to Roman Women’s Asceticism of the Heart 4.4. This Study’s Approach to Christian Imperialism in the Roman Empire 5. Procedure 6. The Life of Melania the Younger: Brief Introduction to the Main Editions of the Greek Text Chapter 2. The Flight from the World and the World of the Pious Empire 1. Rhetorical Analysis 1.1. Narratives and Rhetoric of Fleeing from the World: the Dissociation between the Heavenly and the Worldly 1.2. Narratives and Rhetoric of Empire: Rhetorical Transformation into the “Utopian” and “Reformist” Argumentation 2. The Rhetoric of Flight from the World and Early Christian Asceticism of the Heart 2.1. Desert Monks’ Tradition and the Flight from the World 2.2. Origen, the Ascetic Vision of Fleeing from the World, and its Notion of Sanctification 2.2.1. Ascetic Vision of Fleeing from the World: Origen 1 2.2.2. Ascetical Moral Conversion as a Christian Way of Sanctification: Origen 2 2.3. Antony of Egypt and Spiritual and Moral Struggles in Early Desert Monks 2.4. Later Desert Monasticism and Melania the Younger: Monastic Withdrawal and Monastic Quest for Virtue 3. The Rhetoric of Empire and the Ideology of Ascetic Society in the Roman Empire of the Fourth to Fifth Centuries 3.1. The Christian Roman Empire, the Pious Emperor, and Asceticism in the Late Fourth to Fifth Centuries 3.2. Christian Ideology of Imperial Victory and Pious Emperor 3.3. Christian Ideology of Imperial Victory, Imperial Women’s Piety, and Asceticism 3.3.1. Mother and Virgin 3.3.2. Imperial Women’s Power and Ascetic Piety 3.3.3. Asceticism, the Glory of the Virgin Mary, and Empire 3.4. Imperial Women and a Holy Woman, Melania the Younger 4. Conclusion Chapter 3. Flight from the World and Crossing over to Jerusalem 1. Ascetic Exile, Jerusalem, and the Roman Women Ascetics 2. Cosmopolitan Ascetics of Jerusalem in the Fourth to Fifth Centuries 3. Emerging Christian Ideas of the Holy Place and Holy City, Jerusalem 4. Monastic Jerusalem in the Fourth to Fifth Centuries 5. The Ascetical Monastic Desire for Ascent and Heaven: Melania the Younger and Some Other Roman Women in and around Jerusalem 6. Conclusion Chapter 4. Jerusalem, Imperial Christianity, and Monastic Settlers 1. Imperial Appropriation of Sacred Space and Sacred Material 1.1. Constantinian Buildings and Monastic Settlers in Jerusalem: In Pilgrims’ Eyes 1.2. Private Progress into Jerusalem (1): Building Activities, Relics, and Roman Women Ascetics in the Theodosian Age 1.3. Private Progress into Jerusalem (2): Melania the Younger, Building Activities, Relics in the Theodosian Age 2. Imperial Christian Ownership and Identity in Jerusalem of the Fourth to Fifth Centuries 2.1. Concerns for Christian Imperialism and Roman Palestine and Jerusalem 2.2. An Archetypal Pattern of the Wood of the Cross: Christian Imperial Ideology of Victory and Imperial Ownership 2.3. A Type of Imperial Christian Subjectivity Produced in Roman Palestine and Jerusalem 3. Conclusion Chapter 5. Final Conclusion Bibliography