The fifteen papers collected in this volume, the result of a conference at Lund University in October 2013, dispute the assumption that there were no Graeco-Roman precursors or parallels to monasticism and that Classical and Christian antiquity were inherently different. Instead, monastic culture was in conversation with its Greek and Latin antecedents, transmitting and transforming Classical pedagogical models within new contexts.

The chapters are collected into five thematic parts. Part i deals with the language of education. Rubenson (ch. i) asks key questions about the nature of ‘schools’ and if monasticism was an educational movement. He shows that monasteries provided the key requirements for education: freedom from production, traditions to be handed down, the need to master different skills and practices, and a supportive organisational framework, centred on the monastic Father. Gemeinhardt (ch. ii) focuses on the Life of Antony, in particular the translation of the Greek Life into Latin and the transformation of the image of the early monks for a Western audience, including the portrayal of an ‘uneducated Antony’. The idea of the illiterate monk is taken up again by Westergren (ch. iii) in his study of paideia and power, and the use of learning to rhetorically praise or denounce, within the context of Socrates's Church history.

Part ii turns to the papyrological evidence for Classical paideia. Bagnall (ch. iv) searches for traces of ‘hellenophone’ education within quotidian documents, concluding that this material demonstrates how these scribes’ education went beyond the elementary, but not as far as that of the grammarian. Larsen (ch. v) highlights three case studies to make an important point: how disciplinary and editorial practices can affect how material is studied, influencing how we understand the Christianisation of the Classical curriculum. Staying with specific case studies, Maravela (ch. vi) examines the evidence for Homer and Menandri Sententiae in western Thebes, revealing the real contact between monastics and Classical Greek culture and education. She emphasises how difficult it is to interpret the use of these texts, but also that both texts and the individuals who produced them could serve multiple purposes.

High education is the focus of part iii. Stefaniw (ch. vii) examines the school of the fourth-century Alexandrian Didymus, based on the lesson transcripts contained within the Tura Papyri, found within a monastic context and demonstrating how cultural capital was transferred from the urban centre to the periphery. Including Christian material within this instruction made these texts part of cultural patrimony. The use of rhetorical devices within the work of Evagrius of Pontus is explored by Muehlberger (ch. viii). His use of ethopoeia shows that the Classical rhetorical curriculum was not a foreign practice to Christianity. Sheridan (ch. ix) examines the writings of Rufus of Shotep, highlighting elements of Classical education contained in them that suggest that Rufus had rhetorical training, albeit of indeterminable origin.

Part iv examines connections between philosophy and monasticism. Johnsén (ch. x) looks in detail at a recurring theme in this volume: the uneducated monk. Illiteracy does not refer to basic literacy but to a lack of higher education, a point in common with Epicureanism and Cynicism, although the question is whether these philosophical schools had a direct influence on monasticism. The reading and interpretation of Plato in the fifth-century works of Theodoret and Marinus is examined by Urbano (ch. xi), identifying features conversant with monastic life. Pervarello (ch. xii) discusses the use of the Sentences of Sextus as educational texts and demonstrates how Pythagorean gnomonologies were modified for a Christian ascetic.

Manuscript and literary production is the theme of part v. Dahlman (ch. xiii) uses Cassian and Palladius to explore the practice of (authorial) revision. Adapting to changing circumstances required constant revision, whether by the author (correcting mistakes, etc.) or somebody else (for example, to reflect changing practices), revealing how people and communities used, read and transmitted texts. Colophons on the Nag Hammadi codices are examined by Lundhaug and Jenott (ch. xiv) to challenge previous interpretations and argue that the copyists of these manuscripts were monks. However, the question remains how representative these codices were of the reading habits and theology of the communities that produced them. Finally, Zabrowski (ch. xv) looks at the Arabic recensions of the Apophthegmata patrum and how translations modified these texts to fit the needs of those living under Islamic rule and to express Christian wisdom in Qur'anic idioms and concepts.

One of the great strengths of this volume is how it brings together a broad range of subfields to tackle the question of the role of Classical paideia within primarily early monastic contexts. Despite the broad range of topics, some threads are present throughout: what constitutes a school or teacher; the trope of the illiterate monk; and how texts were (re)adapted to suit different contexts – Christian, monastic, late antique. The papers demonstrate well how Classical antiquity impacted early monasticism and survived within this new framework. Much scope remains for exploring other influences on monastic education, which may have existed alongside these Classical forms and traditions. New research on demotic education has the potential to show how Graeco-Latin paideia may have shaped or been shaped by practices from a pre-Christian Egyptian context.

In incorporating multiple subfields, the volume does suffer from a lack of consistency in how disciplinary standards are adhered to. While the editors address this (p. x), the lack of conformity with papyrological standards, for example, means that many named texts are missing from the Index Locorum (for example, in ch. xiv, the authors use papyrological sigla only for Greek papyri, not Coptic texts, meaning that the latter are not incorporated in the index). Consequently, the utility of the volume will be affected for some users. Yet, this is a relatively minor point, and these collected studies will be of interest to scholars of early Christianity, monasticism, late antiquity, the Classical world and its reception, and ancient education. This volume emphasises continuity and the persistence – even in adapted forms – of established traditions across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The rise of monasticism was not an abrupt and radical change, but one that existed within a cultural continuum.