ABSTRACT

Studies on the early Christian family have revealed that in a domestic context authority exists in a continual state of ux.1 e male role, for example, may be displaced by a potent intruder: the Son of God. He substitutes as a replacement father gure or bridegroom engendering conict within the household and automatically disrupting the weight of masculine inuence.2 e familial sphere of patriarchal supremacy and feminine submission might be additionally fractured by the challenge of daughters and sons who embraced asceticism or by a wife who rejected her biological and social imperative.3