ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book starts with the continuity and change of the family ideology and values in early Christian culture. It explores the impact of Christianity on late Roman family life, and deals with the relevance of asceticism to familial strategies. To promote new ideas and forms of behaviour, different strategies were required both to convince people that the old values were compatible with the new ways of thought and required behavior. The standard situation in Late Antiquity was parents dedicating their children to asceticism, just as parents were also responsible for marrying off their progeny. For the study of family strategies, the separation of the study of rhetorical strategies from the real functions of the family has often led to views of the family that attribute to it either purely materialistic and concrete functions, or else strictly individual and emotional ones.
