This paper forwards the argument - actually a bet - that Christianity has given birth to the first teaching practices in the West and set up the outlines of what might be called pedagogical discourse. That is, discourse we today acknowledge as allowing students to meet at a specific place under the surveillance of a teacher, all of whom governed by a set of truths arising out of a social conflict. These outlines were made possible through four procedures: the seclusion of apprentices from pagan seductions or profane life; the relinquishment of the pleasures derived from the teaching of Latin and Greek; the upsurge of humanism and counter-humanism in teaching, and the turning of the devil into the apprentice's double. This set of procedures has brought about an array of educational tools and possibilities that even in our times can be updated into teaching practices and education policies.
Pedagogical Discourse; Religious Discourse; Foucault's Genealogy