Koinon: The Self and the Commons in Mediterranean Theopolitics

This dissertation analyzes the tension between the self and the commons in the transitional phase from Classical to Late Antiquity. This period embodies the intersection of three worldviews converging in the Roman Empire. Right where political Laconophilia, metaphysical Platonism, and Judeo-Christian theology meet, a wave of communitarian projects along the Mare Nostrum redefine what it means to be human. The main product of this theopolitical climate is a renewed understanding of the commons built upon an innovative sense of individuality that does not necessarily result in political solipsism. An anti-individualist sense of individuality, the monastic self, capable of revealing the limitations of modern communitarianism and individualism at once.