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Caroline T. Schroeder . Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe . (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. 237. $79.95.

2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 116; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/ahr.116.5.1605

1937-5239

Arietta Papaconstantinou,

Ancient Egypt and Archaeology

This book is part of a renewed interest in the fifth-century Egyptian abbot Shenoute, prompted by Stephen Emmel's massive work reconstructing the codices and the structure of the abbot's works (Shenoute's Literary Corpus [2004]). Caroline T. Schroeder draws on that work to define Shenoute's ideology of the body as a means of salvation. Her introduction gives an overview of previous scholarship, especially regarding the important and complex question of sources. Chapter one, the most original in the book, discusses early letters by Shenoute criticizing his own abbot for allowing sinful behavior to develop among the monks without reacting efficiently. Schroeder analyzes Shenoute's rhetoric and arguments, and shows that these texts are the first formal expression of his theory of the body. According to Schroeder, the letters were part of Shenoute's campaign for the position of abbot, which he eventually obtained. Chapter two examines “The Ritualization of the Monastic Body,” and explains how the regulations that Shenoute imposed on his monastic community reflected his ideas about the body. These are read against the background of the Pachomian rule to highlight Shenoute's obsession with the sexual and his view of the monastery as an organism prone to pollution and to the spread of disease. Here, Schroeder highlights the educational role of discipline and punishment, arguing that Shenoute's regulations support Michel Foucault's contention that discipline produces knowledge. Chapter three identifies similar themes in Canon 7, devoted to the construction of a new monastery church and the allegorical interpretation of the building. Chapter four brings several threads together, attempting to situate Shenoute's ideas about the body within his theology as a whole.