Desire and Asceticism in the Ancient Mediterranean World

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This year, we have exchanged the information of each researcher and also critically examined the information presented in a symposium, which was held at the end of the last term with lectures from other universities. Based on this information, we have prepared to make a report of the research results.Mr. Tomohiro Mizutani was a research collaborator as he was last year and did not actively participate in the research project. Mr. Ryoji Motomura, a member of the research project, dealt with the transition of the sexual ethics in the Roman society in the first Academic year. Then he studied, last year, the concept of life and death in the spectacle of gladiators. This year, he verified the historical transformation of a desire for possession in terms of the superior horses.Mr. Takashi Onuki, another researcher, carried out research on asceticism - Christian and non-Christian - of the Mediterranean world of late Antiquity. He classified it into three groups : the Gnosticism which, in his … More view, looks for "the destruction of the world", Encratism, which can be typically found in Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, and early monasticism which reached its acme in the 4th century. Depending on the historical sources, he clarified the process of internal motivations of each group and named it "the theology of asceticism". This research led to the sexual ethics encouraged by the contemporary Orthodox Church which, being aware of the aforementioned three groups, urged "the married life with continence", a feasible abstinence in the ordinary life of each society.This last argument coincides with the research made by Mr. Motomura. He argues that the notion of marriage transferred from the legal procedure to the practical married life in the later Roman society. The sexual relationship was gradually limited to a married couple and "the internal world" including the concept of "conjugal love" was highly regarded in the new tendency. Accordingly, "sexuality" came to be regarded as "impurity". The two researchers conclude that the spread of Christianity was based on this sexual mentality of the people in the Mediterranean world of late Antiquity. It is on this point that the remarkable results of the research should be appreciated. Less