‘…as a little child’?

The Norwegian scholar Reidar Aasgaard has sent me a description of his ongoing research project. Though it may not be described as a philonic project, it is nevertheless supposed to draw on the wider culture of early Christianity, a culture of which Philo also was a part. Hence it may be interesing for philo scholars too to know about this.

Description:

‘…as a little child’?
An investigation of perceptions of children and childhood
in Early Christianity, related to the general culture of Antiquity

The ways in which a society deals with its “out-groups”, can often be seen as an indicator of its degree of humanity. Children are such an “out-group”, and have in the course of history often fallen victims to the vicissitudes of fate. Today there is, however, a growing understanding of childhood as a phase of life in its own right, and of the cultural history, characteristics and rights of children.

Late Antiquity (A.D. 30-430) was an epoch of upheaval, with parallels to our own time, and with children as an important “out-group”. In the hierarchical-patriarchal society of the period, children were at the lower steps of the social ladder, and they were often made invisible. Recent research confirms such a picture, but also points to elements in the sources of more positive attitudes towards children and childhood.

In the new religion of Late Antiquity, Christianity, and in its main collection of writings, The New Testament, the picture given of children and childhood is also ambiguous. However, in the gospel stories about Jesus children appear to play a more central and positive part than was customary.

The research project aims partly at mapping perceptions about childhood, partly at describing the living conditions of children in Late Antiquity, with special focus on early Christian sources. It puts special emphasis on how attitudes towards children and childhood are motivated ideologically and theologically, and on the interplay between different cultural impulses. The project employs a diacronic perspective, in order to trace possible changes in living conditions and in the attitudes towards children: Did the development of a Christian church and culture lead to a new understanding, or even an upgrading, of children and childhood?

The project will utilise a broad range of sources, both as concerns social origin and genre, such as literary texts, epigraphical material, and art. Interdisciplinary contact and co-operation will be central.

The research results are to be presented in a monograph, some minor studies (articles), a book of a popular character, and in teaching and lectures.

The main object of the project is to contribute to new knowledge about the status and living conditions of children in Late Antiquity/Early Christianity. But it also aims at giving insights into a society’s manner of dealing with marginalised groups, impulses to reflection on human worth and rights, understanding of strategies for religious and cultural formation, and contributions to a reform of Christian education within the churches of Norway. More generally, the project also intends to gain insight into the interplay between ideological and social changes within a society.

A more comprehensive description of the research project is available under his profile description at www.tf.uio.no:82/kompkat/?login=reidaraa (only in Norwegian).