Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great : Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt

The works of Shenoute, translated in this book, illuminate the life and thought of late antique Christians in Egypt, providing unparalleled insights into a monastic leader's involvement in church politics, his austere and demanding spirituality, his use of the Bible, and his conflicts with the rich, pagans, and heretics.

Shenoute the Great (c.347–465) led one of the largest Christian monastic communities in late antique Egypt and was the greatest native writer of Coptic in history. For approximately eight decades, Shenoute led a federation of three monasteries and emerged as a Christian leader. His public sermons attracted crowds of clergy, monks, and lay people; he advised military and government officials; he worked to ensure that his followers would be faithful to orthodox Christian teaching; and he vigorously and violently opposed paganism and the oppressive treatment of the poor by the rich. This volume presents in translation a selection of his sermons and other orations. These works grant us access to the theology, rhetoric, moral teachings, spirituality, and social agenda of a powerful Christian leader during a period of great religious and social change in the later Roman Empire.