THE RHETORIC OF GRAECO-ROMAN EROTIC LOVE VERSUS EARLY CHRISTIAN RHETORIC

  • Vossie Vorster University of South Africa

Abstract

Foucault, Veyne and others have indicated that early Christian morality was firmly embedded in the Graeco-Roman ethos and should not be regarded as unique. The article elaborates, using the notion of the “regulatory body,” expressed in terms of Laquer’s “one-sex model” to show how rhetorics of love were determined by the body politic of the “regulatory body,” entrenching, empowering and confirming societal structures. It is argued that early Christianity’s rhetoric foists upon the terminologies of Graeco-Roman erotic love, radicalising these terminologies by interiorisation.
Published
2013-06-12
Section
Articles