Augustinianum

Volume 50, Issue 1, June 2010

« Ecce panis haereticorum ». Diversità alimentari ed identità religiose nel 'De haeresibus' di Agostino

The article examines the food-implications that Augustine assigns to the different groups catalogued in the unfinished work De haeresibus. The aim is to check whether eating habits (and, if so, what eating habits) could be a criterion of heretical identity and identification. On concluding the examination it was found that the eating habits identified by Augustine are a very significant component (and sometimes even discriminatory) used to determine the heretical character of individual dissident groups. However, this same plurality of eating habits which sometimes oppose each other, cannot be reduced to a single paradigm which is able to define the quid faciat hereticum in a broader and more comprehensive manner. In Augustine‟s mind, the heretical identity (and identification) is not reducible to a standard and unique formula.