Abstract:
Much recent work on the masculinities enacted by early Christians has focused upon Christian
texts and claims about their heroes and practices among elite Christians. Lucian’s Passing of
Peregrinus offers another avenue for thinking about early Christian masculinity. Lucian denies
Peregrinus’ claim to masculinity on the basis of his over-concern for honour, especially from
the masses, his inability to control his appetites regarding food and sex, his being a parricide,
his enacting ‘strange’ ascetic practices and his lack of courage in the face of death. By tying
Peregrinus to a Christian community in Judea, Lucian both demonstrates the lack of manliness
in the Christian movement, which he suggests is populated mostly by gullible women and
children, and further ‘unmans’ Peregrinus by linking him to a community of easily duped
people whose praise is not worthy of a philosopher. By presenting this Christian community
as a group that not only accepts Peregrinus as a member but also quickly establishes him as
their leader, almost at par with Jesus himself, according to Lucian’s account, these early
Christians show their lack of self-control by being deceived by a charlatan. Early Christian
writers who claimed that their heroes were manly, even more manly than the Greek or Roman
heroes, were writing in part to rebut the types of claims made by writers like Lucian.
