Abstract
Learning to read and write through texts : the coexistence of the classical and Christian models (1)
Starting from the corpus I have established according to the principles I have made explicit, I reach a conclusion somewhat opposed to those of recent studies :
(1) Classic texts remain the norm right up to the end. But the repertoire of texts is shrinking by leaps and bounds compared with previous periods.
(2) Christian texts, which make a discreet appearance in the 3rd century, become quite visible in the 4th, but at a much lower level than classical texts. It's only in the 7th century that they reach roughly the same level as classical texts, thanks to a decline in the latter.
(3) Throughout the period, the selection of texts offered to pupils was not a question of religion, since on the same tablet, ostracon or papyrus, pupils could be led to copy both classical and Christian texts. The two cultures were therefore likely to rub shoulders in the choice of texts, and more visibly than with onomata.
Learning rhetoric : the virtual absence of Christianity
The corpus of aethopoeias (by far the most attested preparatory exercise for rhetoric in papyrus) shows that, with a few exceptions, all aethopoeias found in papyrus or literary sources deal with secular subjects.
The low profile of Christianity in the progymnasmata can be attributed primarily to the conservatism of Greek-language teaching, but above all to the rejection by a number of Christian intellectuals of the hybrid pedagogical solution of combining classical form with Christian content. As Socrates writes in his Ecclesiastical History III 16, 17-18 : " the Scriptures inspired by God teach admirable and truly divine doctrines, they inculcate in their public great piety and an upright life, they procure for those who apply themselves to them a faith pleasing to God, but they do not teach logic, which makes it possible to refute those who wish to combat the truth ". In other words, the art of reasoning is inculcated not by the Holy Scriptures but by Greek paideia, and it is better to dissociate the two and train in them in parallel than to attempt a vain synthesis that would only result in mutual denaturing.
In conclusion, the proportion of Christianity in the readings decreases as one moves up the levels. Lists of Christian words or extracts from biblical texts are reserved for the acquisition of elementary, almost mechanical knowledge, i.e. learning to read and write. But as soon as it's a question of reasoning and shaping that reasoning to please and persuade, we're back to the fundamentals of old-fashioned rhetoric, with its arsenal of images, commonplaces and examples borrowed from archaic and classical authors.
