Desiring Conversion: Hermas, Thecla, Aseneth

Self-Restraint May Appear To Be The Opposite Of Erotic Desire; Yet Diane Lipsett Shows The surprising and complex interplay of erotic desire and self-restraint in three ancient tales of conversion. She offers nuanced literary analysis of The Shepherd of Hermas, from the Apostolic Fathers, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, from the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, and Joseph and Aseneth, often considered an ancient Jewish novella.

Lipsett examines codes concerning marriage and continence, virginity, and sexual renunciation in the three tales. She finds that "conversion"u a marked change in a protagonist's piety and identityuis in part an effect of story, a function of narrative textures, coherence, and closure. Each tale shows change in the protagonist's identity by treating desire and restraint, and passion and renunciation, as opposing categories. Yet, as Lipsett shows, these tales also complicate the relations of desire and restraint, deploy gender distinctions in surprising ways, and depict conversion as variously precipitated, driven, or disciplined by desire, even while insisting on sexual restraint.

Lipsett's approach is theoretically versatile, drawing on the writings of Foucault, psychoanalytic theorists, and the ancient literary critic Longinus. Lipsett offers close readings of each story, while advancing discussions of ancient views of desire, masculinity, virginity, and the self.

Diane Lipsett, a native of Canada, earned degrees in English literature before undertaking her Ph.D. (2005) in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill). Her teaching and research interests in New Testament and Christian Origins include: conversion, gender, and desire in ancient narratives; parables and hyperbole in the Gospel of Matthew; and reception history of the Gospels. She has taught at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity since 2002.