Browsing by Author "Secord, Jared"
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Item Open Access Approaches to Teaching the History of Medicine in Late Antiquity(Regents of the University of California, 2019-12) Secord, Jared; Wright, JessicaIn this article, the authors propose that late antique medicine is a rich and versatile subject to teach in undergraduate courses, despite a seeming lack of sources and teaching resources. Following an introduction, authors Crislip, Langford, Llewellyn Ihssen, and Marx offer contributions describing their experiences teaching courses that offer some coverage of medicine in Late Antiquity. The contributions show that late antique medicine fits in easily as part of courses on magic and science, and that it lends itself to comparative or world-historical approaches. Late antique medicine likewise provides opportunities to explore the relationship of religion to science and of medicine to the humanities. The authors show that a range of approaches to late antique medicine, including disability studies and medical anthropology, can inspire productive and thoughtful responses from students, and serve as a helpful introduction to the medical humanities for aspiring healthcare professionals.Item Open Access The Celibate Athlete: Athletic Metaphors, Medical Thought, and Sexual Abstinence in the Second and Third Centuries CE(University of California Press, 2018-01) Secord, JaredIn this article, I propose a new way of interpreting athletic metaphors in early Christian literature. I argue that the metaphorical figure of the athlete would have evoked for ancient readers not simply the ideas of competitive struggle, but also the idea of sexual abstinence , a lifestyle choice closely associated with athletes in the Greco-Roman world. The article collects and discusses evidence for the practice of athletic celibacy, drawing together a disparate collection of medical and philosophical literature, with Christian sources, from the second and third centuries CE. It demonstrates that athletic celibacy was a familiar concept in this period , and that many observers were interested in the methods that athletes used to control their sexual urges, including applying lead plates to their loin muscles. The treatment of this evidence suggests that there was greater interest in sexual abstinence among non-Christians than has previously been understood, and that athletes were implicated in controversies about whether or not total abstention from sex was a healthy lifestyle choice. As such, I argue that it is plausible to regard the athletic imagery of early Christians not only as a metaphorical comparison between two kinds of strident individuals, but also as advocacy for the celibate life as the most healthful lifestyle.Item Open Access The Cultural Geography of a Greek Christian: Irenaeus from Smyrna to Lyons(2012-01) Secord, JaredThough he was a Christian and a long-term resident of Roman Gaul, Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 125 – 202 CE) looked at the world and its geography in much the same way that his elite, pagan contemporaries did. His references to Gaul are all made in terms of the classical conventions of Greek geography, and he made no assumption that his Christian readers would have any familiarity with Western Europe. He likewise referred derisively to Latin as a “barbarian language,” though he made it clear that he spent most of his time speaking it in Lyons, rather than his native Greek. Irenaeus’ career thus serves both of an example of the early “Latinization” of the Christian Church in Western Europe, and as a demonstration of the growing influence of elite intellectual pretensions in Christianity, only two generations after the time of the Apostles.Item Open Access Galen and the Theodotians: Embryology and Adoptionism in the Christian Schools of Rome(Peeters Publishers, 2017-01) Secord, JaredThis article disputes two common points made in previous interpretations of the claim that Galen was worshipped by the Theodotians, a group of Christians contemporary with him at Rome. First, the claim is a probable sign of the Theodotians' interest in medical subjects, contrary to suggestions that they were only interested in Galen's works on logic and philosophy. The Theodotians had good reason to be interested in the research of Galen and other doctors, particularly in the area of embryology, a topic that held an underappreciated significance in Christological debates of the second and third centuries. Second, there is no reason to believe that Galen had any personal connection with the Theodotians, much less that he played a significant role in the development of their program of study, as has often been claimed. Galen had no patience for amateur scholars from non-elite backgrounds, and he would thus have had nothing to do with the banausic Theodotians, whose founder was a leather-worker by profession.Item Open Access Health, Medicine, and Philosophy in the School of Justin Martyr(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Secord, JaredIn this paper, I contextualize the engagement of Christian intellectuals with the Roman Empire’s medical marketplace in the second century, focusing on Justin Martyr, Tatian, and pseudo-Justin’s On the Resurrection. I show that Justin, Tatian, and pseudo-Justin attempted to derive authority from displays of medical and philosophical expertise regarding bodily and mental health. Justin’s limited interests in bodily health and medicine were driven by his interest in presenting Christians as philosophers who faced death without fear, a goal that aligned him more closely with his philosophical contemporaries. Tatian and pseudo-Justin, in contrast, launched challenges against the authority of physicians, presenting an ascetic form of regimen as a superior Christian method of achieving excellent bodily and mental health.Item Open Access Introduction: Medicine beyond Galen in the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity(Peeters Publishers, 2017-01) Secord, JaredThe Introduction to Studia Patristica 81: Health, Medicine, and Christianity in Late Antiquity.Item Open Access Julius Africanus, Origen, and the Politics of Intellectual Life under the Severans(2017-01) Secord, JaredThe prominence gained by two Christian scholars, Julius Africanus and Origen, under the Severan dynasty and the connections to the imperial household that they enjoyed cannot be explained simply as a consequence of newfound imperial interest in Christianity, contrary to the prevailing scholarly consensus. The successes of Africanus and Origen were instead a result of their ability to gain mainstream legitimacy among the empire’s intellectual elite, something that no earlier Christian scholars had achieved. Unlike earlier Christian scholars, Africanus and Origen were able to gain legitimate status because they had ready access to money to support their education and research. They were also basically indistinguishable from non-Christian scholars in their ability to serve and interact with the imperial household.Item Open Access Medicine and Sophistry in Hippolytus' Refutatio(Peeters Publishers, 2013-01) Secord, JaredThe Refutatio attributed to Hippolytus contains numerous signs that Christians of the second and early third centuries were aware of the public displays performed by sophists and doctors. Hippolytus himself demonstrates his familiarity with the tropes of sophistic performance by depicting heretics, particularly his nemesis Callistus, as if they were just as inconsistent and devious as extemporizing sophists. Hippolytus also provides indications that some groups of heretics, particularly the Peratae, had active and technical interests in the mechanics of human anatomy and physiology, and that these groups are likely to have witnessed the public demonstrations and dissections commonly performed by doctors in the second century.Item Open Access Occult and Pulp Visions of Greece and Rome in Heavy Metal(2019-01) Secord, JaredSecord explores the depiction of Greece and Rome in heavy metal bands with esoteric interests, fuelled by reading occult authors like Aleister Crowley and the pulp-fiction stories of Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft. He shows that the Eurocentrism and Orientalism found in these authors shape the reception of Greece and Rome within esoteric metal. Greece and Rome are consequently defined as being civilized, familiar, and safe places, and therefore of little interest for esoteric bands, who are more interested in what they regard as more arcane and mysterious aspects of the world’s ancient history. As Secord argues, this attitude towards Greece and Rome makes the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and even fictional lost continents more appealing subjects within esoteric metal. This attitude likewise explains why the Necronomicon, a fictional book of great mystery invented by Lovecraft, is the most influential piece of “ancient” literature within esoteric metal.Item Open Access Overcoming Environmental Determinism: Introduced Species, Hybrid Plants and Animals, and Transformed Lands in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds(Routledge, 2015-01) Secord, JaredThe botanical and zoological literature of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds displayed a triumphalist attitude about the possibilities of introducing animals and plants to new lands. Animals and plants could be reshaped to suit human desires by training and cultivation, and by experiments in interbreeding and grafting. Entire lands could even be transformed to make them more hospitable. Little concern was displayed about maintaining a land in its original state, or about preserving the purity and autochthony of its indigenous creatures. The celebration in botanical and zoological literature of the world’s plasticity calls into question the seeming rigidity and pessimism of environmentally deterministic theories in the ancient world.