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

by David Brakke (translator), Andrew Crislip (Translator)

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.

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 465

Reviews

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of these sermons are so brilliant it makes me so sad that so much of his corpus has been lost.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting look into 5th century Egyptian Christianity