| Abstract | The papers in these sessions explore contexts in which orthodox practices were either an aspect of or expressed through discourses about the regulation of more general aspects of communal and group practice or life.
Paper -a:
Many early sources warn against unorthodox monastic practices, but why did early medieval monasteries need a monastic rule? Many ascetic communities had existed without one and the tradition had always focused on individual renunciation rather than community efforts. This paper will argue that the creation of the genre goes beyond a simple community 'textbook', organising daily life on a pragmatic level. They are also an important part of the early Christian literary movement and a method of Biblical teaching. In this light, monastic rules need more attention than they currently receive and a reappraisal of their development.
Paper -b:
In the past, children and young people were socialised in their homes by their fathers and mothers, by their peers, and by anyone else who might be living in the domestic space. In this paper I look at how orthodox religious learning came to dominate socialisation in the household in England. Parents, and especially fathers, were directed to consider the religious socialisation of their children; part of the civic and Christian responsibilities increasingly associated with the household in the 16th century. In this paper I look at one early English book which identifies the form and function of religious training, Richard Whitford's 1530: A werke for housholders. While religious instruction in the household would later become commonplace in English literature, Whitford's book offers some early perspectives on the place religion holds in fashioning youthful behaviour. This paper will consider religious socialisation as it is shaped by the ideologies of household policy and politics in 16th-century England.
Paper -c:
Le pratiche alimentari caratterizzanti una minoranza sono altamente emblematiche. Proiettate o autoconferite, tali consuetudini nutrizionali sono espressione storica e contingente di più generali meccanismi di riconoscimento, di attribuzione e di definizione dell'identità e personale e di gruppo. La condotta alimentare, che ha già di per sé una forte valenza culturale, nell'ambito specifico della storia delle minoranze costituisce un tangibile criterio del non conformismo: un confine comportamentale che recide e marginalizza un 'gruppo speciale'. Per tali ragioni si propone di mettere in rilievo i comportamenti alimentari speciali che nel De haeresibus (testo fondativo dell'eresiologia occidentale) Agostino attribuisce ad alcune dissidenze religiose dei primi secoli cristiani. Nelle consuetudini alimentari ereticali attestate da Agostino si cercheranno reciproche similarità ed eventuali radici originali. Oltre che all'alimentazione quotidiana, l'indagine darà particolare risalto ai comportamenti alimentari rituali, soprattutto se assimilabili alla liturgia eucaristica.
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