Ideas of Slavery from Aristotle to AugustineThis study, unique of its kind, asks how slavery was viewed by the leading spokesmen of Greece and Rome. There was no movement for abolition in these societies, or a vigorous debate, such as occurred in antebellum America, but this does not imply that slavery was accepted without question. This book draws on a wide range of sources, pagan, Jewish and Christian, over ten centuries, to challenge the common assumption of passive acquiescence in slavery, and the associated view that, Aristotle apart, there was no systematic thought on slavery. The work contains both a typology of attitudes to slavery ranging from critiques to justifications, and paired case studies of leading theorists of slavery, Aristotle and the Stoics, Philo and Paul, Ambrose and Augustine. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
ATTITUDES TO SLAVERY | 21 |
Slavery accepted | 23 |
Justifications of slavery | 35 |
Slave systems criticized | 53 |
Fair words | 64 |
Slavery criticized | 75 |
Slavery eased | 87 |
Early theologians | 153 |
Philo | 157 |
Paul | 173 |
Church Fathers | 189 |
Ambrose | 191 |
Augustine | 206 |
Slavery as metaphor | 220 |
Conclusion | 237 |
THEORIES OF SLAVERY | 103 |
Classical Hellenistic and Roman philosophers | 105 |
Aristotle | 107 |
The Stoics | 128 |
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Common terms and phrases
Ambrose ancient animals antiquity argument Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's Athenaeus Athenian Augustine Augustine's bad slaves barbarians bishop body brothers Canaan century BC Christ Christian Chrysippus Church Cicero citizens common context criticisms CSEL Diogenes Laertius discussion distinction divine emperor enslavement Epictetus Epistulae Esau Esau's existence father follows freedom God's Greek Gregory household human inferiors institution interest Jacob Jewish Jews John Chrysostom judgement justice kind Lactantius legal slavery living Lord manumission Mariandyni master and slave master/slave relationship ment metaphor mind moral slavery natural slave natural slave theory Nicomachean Ethics obedience Old Testament origin passage Paul Paul's Pauline Philo philosophical Plato polis Politics Posidonius punishment Roman Rome rule Seneca Sermon servants serve slave-owning social society sons soul spirit status Stobaeus Stoic Stoic doctrine Stoicism Theodoret things tion treated treatise treatment Ulpian unjust virtue wise Zeno