Revisiting the Subintroductae: Slavery, Asceticism, and “Syneisaktism” in the Exegesis of John Chrysostom
In: Biblical InterpretationBuilding on Page duBois’ work on domestic slavery, and the relationship between literal and metaphorical slavery, this article revisits John Chrysostom’s treatises against the subintroductae (“female spiritual companions”), and reads the late ancient ascetic cohabitation of syneisaktism (often termed “spiritual marriage”) not so much as a type of spiritual marriage, but as an alternative form of slavery. The findings examine the discourse of slavery in the treatises, determine the type of service cohabiting ascetics may have provided to one another, and show how this popular living arrangement relates to late ancient domestic slavery. The thesis holds that syneisaktism provided an alternative to slaveholding, since many of these subintroductae would have been ascetics who got rid of most, if not all, of their slaves, and had to find other ways of coping with domestic labor demands. The close resemblance between slavery and syneisaktism thus shapes Chrysostom’s diatribe against the subintroductae.
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1
Page duBois, Slaves and Other Objects (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), p. 6.
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7
Chris L. de Wet, Preaching Bondage: John Chrysostom and the Discourse of Slavery in Early Christianity (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015), pp. 16-17. For more on the dynamics of the discourse of slavery in classical antiquity, see duBois, Slaves and Other Objects, pp. 117-30.
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8
Jean Dumortier (ed.), Saint Jean Chrysostome: Les cohabitations suspectes; Comment observer la virginité (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1955).
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12
Neureiter, “Synoikein”; “John Chrysostom’s Treatises on the ‘Spiritual Marriage’,” Studia Patristica 41 (2006), pp. 457-62.
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22
Anne-Marie Malingrey (ed.), Jean Chrysostome – Sur la vaine gloire et l’éducation des enfants (SC, 188; Paris: Cerf, 1972). See also Elaine Pagels, “The Politics of Paradise: Augustine’s Exegesis of Genesis 1-3 Versus that of John Chrysostom,” HTR 78 (1985), pp. 67-99 (70-73); Elizabeth A. Clark, “Genesis 1-3 and Gender Dilemmas: The Case of John Chrysostom,” in Barbara Feichtinger, Stephen Lake, and Helmut Seng (eds.), Körper und Seele: Aspekte spätantiker Anthropologie (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 215; München: K.G. Saur, 2006), pp. 159-80; Benjamin H. Dunning, “Chrysostom’s Serpent: Animality and Gender in the Homilies on Genesis,” JECS 23 (2015), pp. 71-95.
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25
Page duBois, Slavery: Antiquity and Its Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 108.
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26
Paul Alexander (ed.), Grégoire de Nysse – Homélies sur l’Ecclésiaste (SC, 416; Paris: Cerf, 1996).
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28
Teresa M. Shaw, The Burden of the Flesh: Fasting and Sexuality in Early Christianity (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1998), pp. 231-33; Jennifer A. Glancy (Slavery in Early Christianity [New York: Oxford University Press, 2002], pp. 90-91) highlights, in this regard, the synodical letter of the Council of Gangra in which the Eustathians are accused of adopting such extreme ascetic practices.
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43
Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends, pp. 35-106; see John Chrysostom, Fem. reg. 7.33-61.
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45
Helen King, Hippocrates’ Woman: Reading the Female Body in Ancient Greece (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 157-71.
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54
Susan Treggiari, “Jobs for Women,” American Journal of Ancient History 1 (1976), pp. 76-104; eadem, “Questions on Women Domestics in the Roman West,” in Maria Capozza (ed.), Schiavitù, manomissione e classi dipendenti nel mondo antico (Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1979), pp. 185-201.
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55
Thomas A.J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 314-16.
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59
Andrew Cain, Jerome and the Monastic Clergy: A Commentary on Letter 52 to Nepotian, with Introduction, Text, and Translation (VCSup 119; Leiden: Brill, 2013), p. 136.
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65
See also Shadi Bartsch, The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp. 115-82.
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66
Page duBois, Torture and Truth (The New Ancient World; New York, NY: Routledge, 1991), pp. 63-68.
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Revisiting the Subintroductae: Slavery, Asceticism, and “Syneisaktism” in the Exegesis of John Chrysostom
In: Biblical InterpretationBuilding on Page duBois’ work on domestic slavery, and the relationship between literal and metaphorical slavery, this article revisits John Chrysostom’s treatises against the subintroductae (“female spiritual companions”), and reads the late ancient ascetic cohabitation of syneisaktism (often termed “spiritual marriage”) not so much as a type of spiritual marriage, but as an alternative form of slavery. The findings examine the discourse of slavery in the treatises, determine the type of service cohabiting ascetics may have provided to one another, and show how this popular living arrangement relates to late ancient domestic slavery. The thesis holds that syneisaktism provided an alternative to slaveholding, since many of these subintroductae would have been ascetics who got rid of most, if not all, of their slaves, and had to find other ways of coping with domestic labor demands. The close resemblance between slavery and syneisaktism thus shapes Chrysostom’s diatribe against the subintroductae.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 381 | 93 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 252 | 10 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 107 | 33 | 0 |