The Social World of Intellectuals in the Roman Empire

Sophists, Philosophers, and Christians

Kendra Eshleman

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781107026384
• eBook ISBN:
  9781139848282
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

This book examines the role of social networks in the formation of identity among sophists, philosophers and Christians in the early Roman Empire. Membership in each category was established and evaluated socially as well as discursively. From clashes over admission to classrooms and communion to construction of the group's history, integration into the social fabric of the community served as both an index of identity and a medium through which contests over status and authority were conducted. The juxtaposition of patterns of belonging in Second Sophistic and early Christian circles reveals a shared repertoire of technologies of self-definition, authorization and institutionalization and shows how each group manipulated and adapted those strategies to its own needs. This approach provides a more rounded view of the Second Sophistic and places the early Christian formation of 'orthodoxy' in a fresh context.

Table of contents

• Cover
• THE SOCIAL WORLD OF INTELLECTUALS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
• GREEK CULTURE IN THE ROMAN WORLD
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgments
• Note on abbreviations
• Introduction: “Who are you?” The social formation of identity
• CHAPTER 1 Inclusion and identity
• CHAPTER 2 Contesting competence: The ideal of self-determination
• CHAPTER 3 Expertise and authority in the early church
• CHAPTER 4 Defining the circle of sophists: Philostratus and the construction of the Second Sophistic
• CHAPTER 5 Becoming orthodox: Heresiology as self-fashioning
• CHAPTER 6 Successions and self-definition
• CHAPTER 7 “From such mothers and fathers”: Succession narratives in early Christian discourse
• Conclusion
• References
• Index