The Rhetoric of Pastoral Power in the Patristic Period: The Case of Ascetic Renunciation and Consecrated Virginity

Michel Foucault’s lectures on pastoral power demonstrate the historical origins of the modern state in the Christian pastorate’s distinct exercise of power over individuals. However, by focusing on the exercise of power over individuals, Foucault’s analysis was limited to the practice of pastoral power. In this paper, I argue that pastoral power’s success during the Patristic period was due to its employment of popular rhetorical strategies that transformed the bishops and presbyters of late Roman antiquity into figures of moral continuity, connecting the Christian pastorate with the traditional Roman morality of the household of pre-Christian Rome. The analysis of pastoral power’s rhetorical strategies illustrates the conditions that justified the necessity of pastoral power to steer institutionalized Christianity within the culture of late Roman antiquity.