Citation

Barry J. Harv. Theol. Rev. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Harvard Divinity School, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0017816023000275

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, I engage Athanasius of Alexandria's invocation of the infamous dismemberment of the unnamed woman found in Judg 19. By the fourth century, this story of gang rape--along with other preserved stories of sexual violence--found in Judges, were scattered throughout early Christian literature. Judges 19 holds a particularly troubling history in the late ancient context. The story of the rape and dismemberment of the unnamed woman in Judg 19 gave life to another story and typified a style of writing that I characterize in the article as a heresiology. The spectacle of Judges, along with other gruesome deaths of women, was one way in which heresiological discourse frames rhetorical arguments for writers like Athanasius of Alexandria. Here, I purposely draw our attention to how Athanasian orthodoxy became reliant on gender-based violence.

Language: en

Keywords

Athanasius of Alexandria; exile; heresiology; orthodoxy/heresy