Reading Renunciation - Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity (Electronic book text)

study of how asceticism was promoted through Biblical interpretation, Reading Renunciation uses contemporary literary theory to unravel the writing strategies of the early Christian authors. Not a general discussion of early Christian teachings on celibacy and marriage, the book is a close examination of the use of particular Biblical verses in the construction of ascetic meaning. Clark shows how "the Fathers' axiology of abstinence informed their interpretation of Scriptural texts and incited the production of ascetic meaning." Clark begins with a survey of scholarship concerning early Christian asceticism that is designed to orient the nonspecialist. Section Two is organized around potentially troubling issues posed by Old Testament texts that demanded skillful handling by ascetically inclined Christian exegetes. The third section, "Reading Paul, " focuses on the hermeneutical problems raised by I Corinthians 7, and the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles.