SLAVERY, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND PHILOSOPHY - (I.L.E.) Ramelli Social Justice and the Legitimacy of Slavery. The Role of Philosophical Asceticism from Ancient Judaism to Late Antiquity. Pp. xvi + 293. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Cased, £70, US$99. ISBN: 978-0-19-877727-4.

Abstract

This important study addresses the connection that obtained in antiquity between philosophical asceticism and social justice, including gender equality, by focusing on the debate concerning the legitimacy of slavery as an institution and the relationship between ascetic practice and the rejection of social inequity. R. ambitiously but successfully ranges over pagan philosophy from Socrates and the Sophists to Proclus; ancient Judaism; the New Testament; and Greek, Latin and Syriac patristic writers. In the case of Greek and Latin writers, key terms are included in the original language. The introduction notes the study's starting point in O. Patterson's 'depiction of slavery in antiquity as "social death" and "the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonoured persons"' (p. 1) and acknowledges the difficulty posed for an investigation of this kind by the practical and ideological ubiquity of slavery in the ancient world, which made it difficult for those writing at the time to envisage it as an institution distinct from the wider social, political, cultural and religious milieu in which they lived. R. notes that social justice is not necessarily a modern category, and defines social injustice as 'essentially the heavy inequalities leading to, and involving, the (often dire) poverty of many and the (often inordinate) wealth of few' (p. 5). A discussion of the Sentences of Sextus highlights the influence of Greek philosophical asceticism upon Christian thinkers. Chapter 1 introduces the themes of asceticism, slavery and socioeconomic injustice as they feature in Greek philosophy and ancient Judaism. It surveys the Sophists; the debates as reflected in tragedy and comedy; Socrates and Plato; Aristotle and Stoic, Cynic and Epicurean responses to him; Scepticism, Middle and Neoplatonism; and the contrast between the acceptance of institutional slavery in non-ascetic Judaism and its rejection by the Essenes and the Therapeutae. Chapter 2 turns to the New Testament with particular attention to Paul, who tells the Galatians that in Christ there is 'neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither man nor woman'. This effectively reverses Aristotle's theorisation of racial, juridical and gender 'superiority by nature' point by point, but was probably inspired by Jesus and may have been intended to counter similar ideas in the rabbinic morning prayer, Tefillat Shahrit. Paul does not, however, call for the abolition of slavery, describing himself as a slave of God and regarding Christ's assumption of slavery as a model of humility. Jesus himself strongly advocated voluntary poverty and gave his followers a powerful message of service by washing his disciples' feet, a slave's task. Chapter 3 surveys patristic attitudes. We learn, for example, that while Ignatius of Antioch does not question the institution of slavery, Cyprian of Carthage does. Clement of Alexandria is interested in moral slavery rather than its juridical counterpart since whether a person is a slave or free has no bearing ...