Author: Jennifer Collins-Elliott, Department of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Abstract: »While rape and sexual violence is a topic that has been well-covered in the areas of Classics and Biblical Studies, there has been relatively little written about this subject that focuses exclusively on late Antique Christianity. Previous work in these fields has been oriented around legal definitions of rape in antiquity, the modern concept of consent, or theological engagement with biblical rape stories. This project uses modern philosophical approaches to sexual violence to analyze the rhetorical function of sexual violence in early Christian literature of primarily the 4th-6th centuries CE in the Latin West. The first two chapters explore how rape threats are used in fictionalized Christian literature, across a variety of genres, to shape expectations for appropriate behavior for Christian women. The threat of sexual violence is a tool deployed by anonymous authors and ecclesiastical and ascetic leaders, such as Ambrose of Milan and Jerome, to keep Christian women, and virgins in particular, in line. Sexual violence was not, however, merely an imaginary horror, but a very real one, too. Chapter three addresses the leap from the imagination to reality, and how ecclesiastical leaders like Augustine of Hippo and Pope Leo I addressed and categorized the raped virgins in their flock. This project offers a study of sexual violence across genres, across time, and across imagination and reality to demonstrate the rhetorical usefulness of sexual violence, both as a threat and as a lived experience, in early Christian literature. Sexual violence, and the threat thereof, helped shape the spiritual hierarchy of early Christian communities and revealed changing attitudes about physical embodiment, purity, and virginity.« (Source: Thesis)

Contents:

	Acknowledgments (p. iv)
	Abstract (p. vi)
	Introduction (p. 1)
		History of Scholarship (p. 2)
			Feminist Approaches to Sexual Violence (p. 2)
			Greco-Roman History and Literature: Trends in the Field of Classics (p. 7)
			Rape and Sexual Violence in Biblical Studies (p. 13)
			Rape and Sexual Violence in Early Christian Studies (p. 20)
		Contribution to Scholarship (p. 25)
		Outline of Chapters (p. 27)
	Chapter One Sexual Violence and the Divine in Early Christian Story Telling (p. 29)
		The Apocryphal Acts: Drusiana and Thecla (p. 29)
			Drusiana (p. 31)
			Thecla (p. 37)
			Virgin Martyrs: Agnes (p. 44)
		Virgin Martyrs: Pelagia (p. 50)
		Virgin Martyrs: Agnes and Pelagia Together (p. 53)
		Conclusion (p. 55)
	Chapter Two Titilating Virgins and Sexual Punishment: Ambrose of Milan and Jerome's Rhetorical Use of Rape Threats (p. 57)
		Ambrose, Chastity, and De virginibus (p. 58)
			Susanna (p. 65)
			Agnes (p. 69)
			Thecla (p. 71)
			The Unnamed Antiochene Virgin (p. 73)
			Pelagia (p. 75)
			A Pedagogy of Sexualized Violence (p. 78)
		The Virgin Indicia: Ambrose’s Correspondence with Bishop Syagrius (p. 79)
		Bringing Together Ambrose’s Imagined and Real Virgins (p. 88)
		Jerome, Rape, and the Instruction of Virgins (p. 90)
		Conclusion (p. 106)
	Chapter Three Prolonged Sorrow and Knowing Your Place: Augustine and Pope Leo I's Responses to Raped Virgins (p. 108)
		Augustine (p. 109)
			De mendacio (p. 109)
				The Value of Chastity and Virginity (p. 111)
				The Body, the Soul, and the Constitution of Chastity and Virginity (p. 115)
				Consent, Sin, and Culpability in the Constitution of Chastity and Virginity (p. 121)
			Ep. 111 (p. 124)
				Rape, Divine Punishment, and the Glorification of God (p. 126)
			De mendacio and Ep. 111 Conclusion (p. 129)
			De civitate dei (p. 130)
			Augustine and His Peers (p. 139)
				Augustine, His Peers, and the Acceptability of Self-Killing (p. 141)
		Pope Leo I (p. 147)
		Conclusion: Bridging the Gap between Augustine and Leo I (p. 153)
	Conclusion The Myth of the Raped Virgin (p. 156)
		The Tale of Mary of Qidun, the Niece of Abraham (p. 156)
			Mary’s Fall: A Case Study in the Ambiguities of Sexual Violence (p. 158)
		The Myth of the Raped Virgin (p. 161)
	References (p. 164)
		Abbreviations (p. 164)
		Ancient Sources (p. 164)
		Modern Sources (p. 167)
	Biographical Sketch (p. 182)

Wikipedia: Ancient history: Ancient Rome / Western Roman Empire | Christianity: Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Pope Leo I | Sex and the law: Rape / History of rape