ABSTRACT
Within the covers of the Nag Hammadi Codices, a collection of fourth-century letters was discovered that had been written to and from a community of monks. The contents of the letters provide snapshots of the everyday activities of a group of people who were both identified and self-identifying as monks at a time when the norms associated with monasticism were not yet fully established. Using the theories developed in the work of Bernard Lahire, I examine these and other early monastic letters to seek out evidence for the possession of multiple social identities by people who labelled themselves, or were labelled, as monks. I then ask how this can give us an insight into plural belongings and role recognition as experienced by the monastic pioneers who played a pivotal role in creating and developing a new social field within a Christian framework.
