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Pevarello ( D. ) The Sentences of Sextus and the Origins of Christian Ascetiscism . (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum 78.) Pp. xii + 248. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck , 2013. Paper, [euro]89. ISBN: 978-3-16-152579-7 .
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As Henry Chadwick remarked in his edition of the Greek text back in 1959, the collection known as the Sentences of Sextus has the potential to 'play a central role in the debate on the continuity and discontinuity between the moral thought of the early church and that of paganism'. It is, however, not until the publication of P.'s discussion about the relations between the text as edited by Chadwick and its parallels among a variety of pagan texts that these potentials of the text have been displayed in detail. Freed from Chadwick's concern for the originality and superiority of Christianity, P. sets out to study analogies and differences between Sextus' ideals and those of his sources, that is to assess the subtle transformation of contemporary moral philosophy by a Christian philosopher. Through a detailed analysis of selected passages with a focus on ascetic themes P. uses the text to shed light on the origins of Christian asceticism. Instead of falling back on old dichotomies between Christian and pagan and discussions on 'influence', the book constitutes an important step forward respecting the creative mind of a late-antique Christian compiler re-using older material in shaping a new collection of ethical teaching.
Before entering into the detailed discussion of crucial passages, P. presents in his first chapter a thorough investigation into the...