Early Christian Dress is the first full-length monograph on the
subject of dress in early Christianity. It pays attention to the
ways in which dress expressed and shaped Christian identity, the
role dress played in Christians rivalries with pagan neighbours,
and especially to the ways in which notions of gender were culled
and revised in the process. Although many scholars have argued that
gender in late antiquity was a performed and embodied category, few
have paid attention to the ways in which dress and physical
appearances were implicated in the understanding of femininity and
masculinity. This study addresses that gap, revealing the amount of
sartorial work necessary to secure stable gender categories in the
worlds of early Imperial pagans and late ancient Christians.
This study analyzes several vigorous discussions and debates
that arose over Christian women 's dress. It examines how
Christians interpreted their dress especially the dress of female
ascetics as evidence of Christianity 's advanced morality and
piety, a morality and piety that was coded "masculine." Yet even
Christian leaders who championed ascetic women 's ability to
achieve a degree of virility in terms of their virtue and spiritual
status were troubled when ascetics dress threatened to materially
dissolve gender categories, difference, and hierarchies. In the
end, the study enables us to gain a broader view of how gender was
constructed, perceived, and contested in early Christianity.
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