Christianity and the Contest for Manhood in Late Antiquity

In This Book Nathan Howard Explores Gender And Identity Formation In Fourth-Century Cappadocia Where Pro-Nicene Bishops Used A Rhetoric Of Contest That Aligned With Conventions Of Classical Greek Masculinity. Howard Demonstrates That Epistolary Exhibitions Served As''A Locus For'' Asserting Manhood In The Fourth Century.These PerformancesIllustrate How A Culture Of Orality That Had Defined Manhood Among Civic Elites Was Reframed As A ContestWhereby One Accrued Status Through Merits Of Composition. Howard Shows How The Cappadocians'' Rhetoric Also Reordered The Body And Materiality As Components Of A Maleness Over Which They Moderated. He Interrogates Fourth-Century Theological Conflict As Part Of A Rhetorical Battle Over Claims To Manhood That Supported The Cappadocians'' Theology And Cast Doubt On Non-Trinitarian Rivals Whom They Cast As Effeminate And Disingenuous. Investigating Accounts OfPro-Nicene ProtagonistsOvercomingStruggles Howard Establishes ThatTropesBased OnClassicalStandards Of Gender Contributed To The Formation Of Trinitarian Orthodoxy.