Literate Workers and the Production of Early Christian Literature

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This Element provides a historical overview of the sources and key scholarship related to literate workers in early Christianity. It argues that literate workers were indispensable for the creation, production, maintenance, interpretation, and preservation of ancient Christian thought, theology, and literature. This Element centres the embodiment and lived experience of literate workers-as much as is able to be retrieved from our extant Christian sources. Who were they? What did they look like? What was their relationship with named authors? What kinds of aspirations and career trajectories did they have? The aim of this project is to help researchers reconfigure their perspectives on ancient works, that such documents not only represent the genius of named authors but also of (enslaved) literate workers as well.