Date of Award
1-1-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Organizational Unit
Joint Ph.D. Program in Study of Religion
First Advisor
Pamela M. Eisenbaum, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Alison Schofield
Third Advisor
Gregory Robbins
Keywords
Ascetical practice, Egyptian monasticism, Isaac, Biblical patriarch, Testament of Isaac
Abstract
This dissertation argues that the textual community of fourth or fifth century monastic Egypt read Testament of Isaac as an ascetical regimen in order to transform themselves into children of Isaac. T. Isaac highlights three particular dimensions of Isaac's character from the remembered tradition of Isaac that would have resonated in the Egyptian monastic context of the textual community - Isaac as priestly authority, Isaac as sacrifice, and Isaac as blind ascetic - to create a model for the new self that the textual community aimed to achieve. Two important ascetic practices in T. Isaac that the textual community was to perform were copying and reading T. Isaac. These two practices functioned as technologies of the self that helped the members of the textual community to transform their present subjectivity into a new self modeled on Isaac in T. Isaac.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
John William Fadden
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
en
File Size
250 p.
Recommended Citation
Fadden, John William, ""Our Father Isaac": Reading the Sahidic Testament of Isaac in an Egyptian Monastic Context" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 971.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/971
Copyright date
2013
Discipline
Biblical Studies