Synopses & Reviews
During the Middle Ages in Europe, some sexual and gendered behaviors were labeled and#147;sodomiticaland#8221; or evoked the use of ambiguous phrases such as the and#147;unmentionable viceand#8221; or the and#147;sin against nature.and#8221; How, though, did these categories enter the field of vision? How do you know a sodomite when you see one?
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In Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages, Robert Mills explores the relationship between sodomy and motifs of vision and visibility in medieval culture, on the one hand, and those categories we today call gender and sexuality, on the other. Challenging the view that ideas about sexual and gender dissidence were too confused to congeal into a coherent form in the Middle Ages, Mills demonstrates that sodomy had a rich, multimedia presence in the periodand#151;and that a flexible approach to questions of terminology sheds new light on the many forms this presence took. Among the topics that Mills covers are depictions of the practices of sodomites in illuminated Bibles; motifs of gender transformation and sex change as envisioned by medieval artists and commentators on Ovid; sexual relations in religious houses and other enclosed spaces; and the applicability of modern categories such as and#147;transgender,and#8221; and#147;butchand#8221; and and#147;femme,and#8221; or and#147;sexual orientationand#8221; to medieval culture.
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Taking in a multitude of images, texts, and methodologies, this book will be of interest to all scholars, regardless of discipline, who engage with gender and sexuality in their work.
Review
and#8220;Millsand#8217;s Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages is a tour de force of erudition, critical insight, and balanced judgment. Not since John Boswelland#8217;s Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality has a single scholar working in gender and sexuality studies taken on such a vast array of data, genres, and languages and treated it with such wisdom and care. Mills is uniquely suited to the task: an art historian, a literary scholar, and a theoretical wizard, he combines like no one else in these three fields of expertise materials that he sees as complementary and essential to one another. The result is a re-visioning of medieval material in the light of twenty-first century thinking and the interaction between the visual and the textual.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages is an ambitious reexamination of the categories of sexuality and gender and the implications of the multiple ways in which they are linked both in the Middle Ages and today. This book single-handedly brings the discourse to a new level of maturity. This extremely stimulating meditation on the role of the visual in meditating about sodomy as a set of acts, ideas, and emotions overflows with productive rethinking; further, it models and encourages what has been too often lacking in this field, subtlety of thought and tolerance of ambiguity. Mills addresses directly and thoughtfully the challenges of working in a discourse the very terms of which are unstable in the present and makes his own brilliant and significant contribution. Millsandrsquo;s study makes an extremely substantive and highly timely contribution to a major field within both medieval studies and contemporary discourse.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Masterful. . . . Mills uses the concept of sodomy as a sharp needle through which to stitch meticulous analyses of visual, literary, and historical sources into a rich tapestry that depicts lives and experiences that breached medieval social norms. . . . This sensitive, imaginative work is bound to become a classic among studies of premodern gender and sexuality.andquot;
Synopsis
In this startling original work of historical detection, Mark D. Jordan explores the invention of Sodomy by medieval Christendom, examining its conceptual foundations in theology and gauging its impact on Christian sexual ethics both then and now. This book is for everyone involved in the ongoing debate within organized religions and society in general over moral judgments of same-sex eroticism.
"A crucial contribution to our understanding of the tortured and tortuous relationship between men who love men, and the Christian religion—indeed, between our kind and Western society as a whole. . . . The true power of Jordan's study is that it gives back to gay and lesbian people our place in history and that it places before modern theologians and church leaders a detailed history of fear, inconsistency, hatred and oppression that must be faced both intellectually and pastorally."—Michael B. Kelly, Screaming Hyena
"[A] detailed and disturbing tour through the back roads of medieval Christian thought."—Dennis O'Brien, Commonweal
"Being gay and being Catholic are not necessarily incompatible modes of life, Jordan argues. . . . Compelling and deeply learned."—Virginia Quarterly Review
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-185) and index.
About the Author
Mark D. Jordan is the Reverend Priscilla Wood Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. He was previously the Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity and Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University and also taught at the University of Notre Dame and Emory University. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
A Prelude after Nietzsche: The Responsibilities of a History of Sodomy
1: The Passions of St. Pelagius
2: The Discovery of Sodomy
3: Peter Damian: Books in Gomorrah
4: Alan of Lille: Natural Artifices
5: The Care of Sodomites
6: Albert the Great: The Sodomitic Physiology
7: Thomas Aquinas: The Sin against Nature
A Postlude after St. Ambrose: The Responsibilities of a Theology of Sodomy
Works Cited
Index