This book introduces a beautiful fourth-century Coptic discourse on love and self-control in its first English translation. The text’s heading attributes it to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, but this attribution is questionable. Exploring issues of authorship and context, this book locates the origins of On Love and Self-Control in the Upper Egyptian Pachomian monastic community of the mid-fourth century. It then traces the various uses of On Love and Self-Control to the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, when the single surviving manuscript was copied as part of an anthology at the Monastery of St. Shenoute of Atripe. A partial reconstruction of this now dismembered codex is provided.
Industry Reviews
"Schneider has written the first thorough study of On Love and Self-Control (with English translation), carefully comparing it to related Pachomian texts and also to similar material in the Apocalypse of Samuel of Qalamun. The detailed review of the monastic manuscripts in which these texts are preserved also raises many interesting questions. Her work will certainly encourage further work on fourth- and fifth-century ascetic contexts in Egypt."Dr. Janet A. Timbie, The Catholic University of America
