Synopses & Reviews
John Boswellandrsquo;s National Book Awardandndash;winning study of the history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the early Christian West was a groundbreaking work that challenged preconceptions about the Churchandrsquo;s past relationship to its gay membersandmdash;among them priests, bishops, and even saintsandmdash;when it was first published thirty-five years ago. The historical breadth of Boswellandrsquo;s research (from the Greeks to Aquinas) and the variety of sources consulted make this one of the most extensive treatments of any single aspect of Western social history.
Now in this thirty-fifth anniversary edition with a new foreword by leading queer and religious studies scholar Mark D. Jordan, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality is still fiercely relevant. This landmark book helped form the disciplines of gay and gender studies, and it continues to illuminate the origins and operations of intolerance as a social force.
Review
and#160;andldquo;Truly groundbreaking work. Boswell reveals unexplored phenomena with an unfailing erudition.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;I would not hesitate to call his book revolutionary for it tells of things heretofore unimagined and sets a standard of excellence that one would have thought impossible in the treatment of an issue so large, uncharted and vexed. . . . Boswell has mastered one of the rarest skills: the ability to write about sex with genuine wit. Improbably as it might seem, this work of unrelenting scholarship and high intellectual drama is also thoroughly entertaining.andrdquo;
Review
"What makes this work so exciting is not simply its contentand#8212;fascinating though that isand#8212;but its revolutionary challenge to some of Western culture's most familiar moral assumptions."
Synopsis
Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.
Description
Includes bibliographical references 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. Heand#160;was previouslyand#160;the Richard Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Divinity and Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University and alsoand#160;taughtand#160;at the University of Notre Dame and Emory University. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Foreword to Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Edition
Preface
Part I: Points of Departure
1. Introduction
2. Definitions
3. Rome: The Foundation
Part II: The Christian Tradition
4. The Scriptures
5. Christians and Social Change
6. Theological Traditions
Part III: Shifting Fortunes
7. The Early Middle Ages
8. The Urban Revival
9. The Triumph of Ganymede: Gay Literature of the High Middle Ages
Part IV: The Rise of Intolerance
10. Social Change: Making Enemies
11. Intellectual Change: Men, Beasts, and andldquo;Natureandrdquo;
12. Conclusions
Appendix 1. Lexicography and Saint Paul
Appendix 2. Texts and Translations
Frequently Cited Works
Index of Greek Terms
General Index