Publications
Caroline T.
Schroeder
Monastic
Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe. Divinations:
Rereading Late Ancient Religion
Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2007.
"Prophecy
and Porneia in Shenoute's Letters" Journal
of Near Eastern Studies, 65 (2006): 81-97
In his
letters to the men and women of his
monastery, Shenoute frequently draws on prophetic rhetoric taken from
the Christian Old Testament to enhance his authority as an ascetic
leader. In these same letters, Shenoute uses gendered and sexualized
language to discuss and condemn sins he believes are being committed in
the monastery. This paper will examine the relationship between
Shenoute's use of prophetic discourse and his frequent condemnation of
the sin of porneia in select
texts. It will argue that Shenoute's
references to sexual sin should not be interpreted simply as an account
of the activities of the monks under his supervision. Rather,
Shenoute's rhetoric reflects his vision of the monastery as a feminine
space or figure comparable to Israel or Jerusalem in the Christian Old
Testament, an entity whose sins are construed as faithlessness to God
as the true object of Israel's, and now the monastery's, devotion.
"Shenoute
of Atripe on the Resurrection," ARC
33 (2005): 123–37
"'A
Suitable Abode for Christ': The Church Building as Symbol of
Ascetic Renunciation in Early Monasticism," Church History 73:3 (2004)
A
handful of early ascetic authors wrote about the theological
significance they found in the building of churches. These
include the wealthy Latin patron Paulinus of Nola (Italy), two
anonymous members of the Pachomian monasteries in Egypt, and the
Egyptian archimandrite Shenoute. The churches built for each of
these late antique communities held deep theological
significance. They symbolized the ascetic endeavors undertaken at
those communities. Since for each writer, the ascetic struggle
was constituted in slightly different terms, with different goals,
practices, and interpretations of those practices, so were the church
buildings imbued with different meanings. Yet, in each case, the
church held meaning beyond its mere walls. Each was constructed
as much by a theology and a discourse of ascetic discipline as it was
by wood, brick, and stone. Shenoute’s texts on the construction
of the church at the monastery he directed are the most extensive
treatment of this topic, and yet Shenoute is the least well known of
the surviving authors. This essay explores the ascetic
significance of Shenoute’s church building in the fifth century and
concludes by comparing his church as a symbol of renunciation to other
late antique authors.
"Ancient
Egyptian Religion on the Silver Screen: Modern Anxieties about
Race, Ethnicity, and Religion," the Journal
of Religion and Film,
October 2003
This
article examines the representations of religion and race in The Mummy
(1932), Stargate, the Ten Commandments, and Prince of Egypt. It
originated from my experiences teaching ancient Egyptian history and
religion.
"Conference Report on
Cosmopolitan Alexandria: A Symposium, Cornell University, October
20-21, 2002," Edebiyat: the Journal of Middle Eastern
Literatures 13 (2003): 269-272
"Purity and Pollution in the Asceticism of Shenute of Atripe," in vol.
35 of Studia Patristica, eds. M. F. Wiles and E. J. Yarnold
(Leuven: Peeters, 2001), 142-47
In his
earliest letters, the fourth-century Egyptian monk Shenoute (or
Shenute) of Atripe outlines a purity code in which the sins of any one
monk can pollute the entire monastery, thus threatening the salvation
of other members of the community. Shenoute uses this
understanding of sin as pollution to critique the current leadership of
the monastery.
"Embracing the
Erotic in the Passion of Andrew: the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew,
the Greek Novel, and Platonic Philosophy" in The Apocryphal Acts of
Andrew,
edited by Jan N. Bremmer (Leuven: Peeters, 2000) 110-26
The
Apocryphal "Passion of Andrew" reworks generic elements from the
Hellenistic novels using elements of‹Platonic philosophy to present a
radically different consummation of love and desire. The erotic
love of the novels is consummated in sexual passion, marriage, and
procreation. Love in the Passion of Andrew culminates in union
with the beloved, but the beloved is the figure of the divine, to whom
the characters are introduced by their teacher Andrew. True love
and properly oriented desire result in Platonic objectives: an
understanding of the inner self, unification with the divine, and a
sense of peace and rest. This text presents one of the earliest
links between Platonism and strong, Christian asceticism outside of the
Nag Hammadi writings and predates the Platonizing asceticism of
Origenist monasticism in Egypt by centuries.
"Francia as
Christendom: The Merovingian Vita Domnae Balthildis,"Medieval Encounters 4 (1998): 265-284
Compared to its
predecessors in Christian literature, the Merovingian Vita Domnae Balthildis depicts a
new articulation of the Christianization of a kingdom. In this
text, Francia is Christianized by its peaceful unification through the
political and ecclesiastical manoeuverings of ruler consistently
described as humble and pious. The hagiographer combines political
rhetoric with Christian rhetoric to produce a new paradigm for the
ideal ruler: a queen whose piety and humility lead to the
political unification of her country and to its favor before God.
This portrayal of the Christianization process does not follow the
previous literary models of Clovis and Constantine who converted to
Christianity in warñtime settinga and Christianized their
nations through their conversions. Balthild's Christianization
involves the unification of Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy, her
patronage and reformation of monasteries, and her personal and royal
acts of Christian charity. Scriptural allusions also depict
Balthild as the heir to a line of other humble, biblical women, favored
by God, who saved their people. This particular recasting of
political success in the rhetoric of faith represents a new
understanding of royal, female piety, as well. Balthild's
transformation of Francia is her act of saintly virtue; unlike previous
queens, her sanctity does not rest on private acts of faith but on
public acts as a queen. Balthild, according to the author, is the
linchpin in God's salvific plan for Francia, which itself is conceived
of as a new Israel or an early glimmer of what would later be called
Christendom.
+ Book reviews in the Review of Biblical Literature, Church History, the Journal of Ecclesiastical History.