Theatrical shows and ascetic lives
Subtitle: John Chrysostom's attack on spiritual marriage
By: Blake Leyerle.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
Subjects: John Chrysostom, Saint, d. 407.; Theater -- Turkey -- Antioch -- History -- To 500 -- Historiography.; Sexual abstinence -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.; Marriage -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.; Theater -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Antioch (Turkey) -- Historiography.
Description: "This book provides an original context for understanding the prolific fourth-century Christian theologian John Chrysostom and the religious and social world in which he lived. Blake Leyerle analyzes two highly rhetorical treatises by this early church father attacking the phenomenon of "spiritual marriage." Spiritual marriage was an ascetic practice with a long history in which a man and a woman lived together in an intimate relationship without sex.

What begins as an analysis of Chrysostom's attack on spiritual marriage becomes a broad investigation into Chrysostom's life and work, the practice of spiritual marriage itself, the role of the theater in late antique city life, and the early history of Christianity. Although thoroughly grounded in the texts themselves and the cultural history of late antiquity, this study breaks new ground with its focus on issues of rhetoric, sexuality, and power."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-235) and index.