Children and Family in Late Antique Egyptian Monasticism by Caroline T. Schroeder (review).

Schroeder's analysis opens a fascinating window into monastic understandings of childhood and fantasies about children. Schroeder is especially interested in the use of emotions to manipulate and control within the monastic setting, and how this was geared towards the undoing of biological bonds and their replacement with the surrogate monastic family. My misgivings above regarding children's I actual i presence in monasteries are ultimately irrelevant to the core of Schroeder's powerful and subtle analysis of a monastic corpus she knows and understands intimately. [Extracted from the article]