"Our Father Isaac": Reading the Sahidic Testament of Isaac in an Egyptian Monastic Context

<p>This dissertation argues that the textual community of fourth or fifth century monastic Egypt read <em>Testament of Isaac</em> as an ascetical regimen in order to transform themselves into children of Isaac. <em>T. Isaac</em> 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 <em>T. Isaac</em> that the textual community was to perform were copying and reading <em>T. Isaac</em>. 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 <em>T. Isaac</em>.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Fadden, John William

Contributors dc:contributor

• Pamela M. Eisenbaum, Ph.D.
• Alison Schofield
• Gregory Robbins

• Ascetical practice
• Egyptian monasticism
• Isaac
• Biblical patriarch
• Testament of Isaac
• Biblical Studies

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/971

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-1970