| Popis: |
Slavery has been defined as social death by Orlando Patterson. This article sets out to investigate if there was new social life for slaves in early Christian communities. The article gives an ideological-critical interpretation of the household codes, and argues that these present an idealized image of slavery. They are not signs of a counter-cultural discourse within Graeco-Roman antiquity; rather, they conform to the dominant presentation of slavery. The article shows that the idealized presentations anchor the institution of slavery as a natural and universal phenomenon and draw the attention away from the mundane oppression of slaves in Graeco-Roman antiquity. |
