ingest
cdrApp
2017-07-06T12:11:26.460Z
f47fee2b-b335-4530-8fc6-0075e2c9b39d
modifyDatastreamByValue
RELS-EXT
cdrApp
2017-07-06T12:28:04.208Z
Setting exclusive relation
modifyDatastreamByValue
RELS-EXT
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:45:50.480Z
Setting exclusive relation
modifyDatastreamByValue
RELS-EXT
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:45:58.938Z
Setting exclusive relation
addDatastream
MD_TECHNICAL
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:46:07.064Z
Adding technical metadata derived by FITS
modifyDatastreamByValue
RELS-EXT
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:46:23.392Z
Setting exclusive relation
addDatastream
MD_FULL_TEXT
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:46:32.552Z
Adding full text metadata extracted by Apache Tika
modifyDatastreamByValue
RELS-EXT
fedoraAdmin
2017-07-06T12:46:41.745Z
Setting exclusive relation
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-01-25T03:15:05.257Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-01-27T03:53:30.518Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-03-13T23:47:17.938Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-05-16T21:16:27.320Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-07-10T22:17:34.001Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-07-17T18:25:29.344Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-08-08T17:52:16.776Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-08-15T14:59:40.351Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-08-16T18:02:38.265Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-09-21T15:31:43.366Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-09-26T18:38:04.877Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2018-10-11T19:17:58.312Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2019-02-28T02:51:57.240Z
modifyDatastreamByValue
MD_DESCRIPTIVE
cdrApp
2019-03-19T22:09:03.731Z
Travis
Proctor
Author
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence.
Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies.
The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
Spring 2017
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian
Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early
Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four
case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I
demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body.
Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans,
for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and
Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its
corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic
corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal
Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities
in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as
fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours
of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between
demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early
Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites
such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic
bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an
embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic
body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction
of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the
bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader
cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of
the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were
fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment.
By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of
re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic
contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
Spring 2017
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology,
Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting
institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
Spring 2017
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017-05
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart D.
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
Religious Studies
Bart D.
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Degree granting institution
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body; Christianity; Cosmology; Demon; Demonology; Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body, Christianity, Cosmology, Demon, Demonology, Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart D.
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body; Christianity; Cosmology; Demon; Demonology; Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Religious Studies
Bart D.
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Travis
Proctor
Creator
Department of Religious Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Rulers of the Air: Demonic Bodies and the Making of the Ancient Christian Cosmos
This dissertation uses demonology as a lens through which to explore early Christian theorizations of the body’s entanglement with nonhuman entities. Through four case studies on Christian demonologies in the first three centuries of the Common Era, I demonstrate that early Christians held to a wide variety of views on the demonic body. Early texts such as the Gospel of Mark and Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrnaeans, for example, portray demons as “incorporeal.” Writings from Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian of Carthage, however, depict the demonic body in ways that stress its corpulence. Despite these demonological discrepancies, in each case differences in demonic corporeality run parallel to divergences in Christian characterizations of the ideal Christian body. The hybridity of the demonic body, then, reflects broader multiplicities in Christian modes of corporeality. This suggests that the bodies of demons served as fruitful sites of negotiation and invention for Christians as they fashioned the contours of human corporeality within and among other cosmic forces. The propinquity between demonic and human corporealities, moreover, materialized in the ritual activities of early Christians. I point out that ideas regarding demonic bodies informed early Christian rites such as exorcism, the Eucharist, ritual contemplation, and baptism. In such a way, demonic bodies came to play a central role in the ritualization of Christian corporeality as an embodied repudiation of its demonic assailants. In this way, the contours of the demonic body both reflected and reproduced Christian corporeal ideologies. The tandem construction of demonic and human corporeality demonstrates how early Christian authors constructed the bodies that populated their cosmos – human, demon, and otherwise – as part of broader cosmic networks. Configurations of the human body, on the one hand, took shape in light of the many bodies and objects adjacent to it. Similarly, the cosmos and its denizens were fashioned relative to ideals regarding the makeup and performance of Christian embodiment. By tracing this close interconnection, my project serves the broader purposes of re-centering the nonhuman in our study of early Christianity while enriching the cosmic contexts in which the Christian body took shape.
2017
Religious history
Biblical studies
Ancient history
Body; Christianity; Cosmology; Demon; Demonology; Ritual
eng
Doctor of Philosophy
Dissertation
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Degree granting institution
Bart D.
Ehrman
Thesis advisor
Elizabeth
Clark
Thesis advisor
James
Rives
Thesis advisor
Annette
Reed
Thesis advisor
Zlatko
Plese
Thesis advisor
text
2017-05
Proctor_unc_0153D_17014.pdf
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2019-07-06T00:00:00
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