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Competing Identities
The Athlete and the Gladiator in Early Christian Literature
Competing Identities
The Athlete and the Gladiator in Early Christian Literature
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Description
Since earliest Christian martyrologies, there have been abundant uses of the metaphor of analysis of ancient athletics and their socio-religious importance in the era of the early Roman Empire. This book explores these metaphors-agonistic and competitive in their very nature-as rhetoric that fashions a resistant subjectivity that constrasts, contradicts, and even partially creates or demonstrates political and national identity, gender, and ideological strength. As rhetoric that crafts identity, these metaphors also invite inquiry into the construction of modern notions of "subjectivity" and "autobiography." Finally, the study of these metaphors offers opportunity to inquire into the process of scholarly analysis and appropriation of antique texts.
Table of Contents
Chapter
1. Three Epiphanies: On Autobiography and Athleticism
in the Literature of the Early Roman Empire
First Epiphany: Text and Body
Second Epiphany: The "I" of the Text
Third Epiphany: The Athletic "I"
The Plan of this Study
2. Paul's Athletic Metaphors for Messianic Proclamation and Identity:
Hybridity and the Rhetoric of Endurance
3. Contending for the Faith: Combat Spots, Gladiators and
Pauline Identity in the Pastoral Epistles
4. Running With Endurance: An Autobiographical Reading of
Hebrews 12:1-13
Stretching
Warming Up
Striding Out
Kicking
Lurching to the Finish
Toweling Off
5. Jesus' Ni/kh: Competition (And Conquest) in the Apocalypse of John
Swimming
Cycling
The Language (of the) Games
Performing
6. Apeluthesan: Perpetua, Blandina, and the literary description of
Martyrdom as Athletic Triumph in Early Christian Proto-Hagiography
On Women Gladiators
Gladiatorial Gender
Sexual Arena
Blandina
Perpetua
On Reading Gladiator-Martyrs
Apeluthesan
7. Conclusion: Limping Behind Augustine
WORKS CITED
Product details
| Published | Mar 01 2007 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 192 |
| ISBN | 9780567380081 |
| Imprint | T&T Clark |
| Series | The Library of New Testament Studies |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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