Utopia, body, and pastness in John Chrysostom

Using the works of John Chrysostom (349–407 CE) as a case study, de Wet investigates how the links between pastness, utopia, and body may have been conceptualised in late-ancient Christianity. By understanding these links between pastness, body, and utopia in an early Christian author like Chrysostom, we are afforded the opportunity to engage in further research into memory, utopia, and the destruction of the past. De Wet highlights the parallels, correlations, and disjunctures between the construction and deconstruction of late-antique society and culture, through the construction and deconstruction of the body in ascetic discourse.