Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century [Paperback]

John Boswell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

"Truly groundbreaking work. Boswell reveals unexplored phenomena with an unfailing erudition."—Michel Foucault

John Boswell's National Book Award-winning study of the history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the early Christian West was a groundbreaking work that challenged preconceptions about the Church's past relationship to its gay members—among them priests, bishops, and even saints—when it was first published twenty-five years ago. The historical breadth of Boswell'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. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, still fiercely relevant today, helped form the disciplines of gay and gender studies, and it continues to illuminate the origins and operations of intolerance as a social force.

"What makes this work so exciting is not simply its content—fascinating though that is—but its revolutionary challenge to some of Western culture's most familiar moral assumptions."—Jean Strouse, Newsweek

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Truly groundbreaking work. Boswell reveals unexplored phenomena with an unfailing erudition." - Michel Foucault "What makes this work so exciting is not simply its content - fascinating though that is - but its revolutionary challenge to some of Western culture's most familiar moral assumptions." - Jean Strouse, Newsweek"

About the Author

John Boswell (1947-94) was the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale University and the author of The Royal Treasure, The Kindness of Strangers, and Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 442 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 8th Edition edition (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226067114
• ISBN-13: 978-0226067117
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Gender & Sexuality

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 61 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly plea July 14, 2003

By FrKurt Messick HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I have been the teaching assistant for a course entitled 'Theology of the Welcoming Church'; we have had wonderful diverse groups of students, from traditional/conservative to liberal in background, multi-denominational in affiliation. It always promises to be a good course and provide dialogue for better understanding even if it does not resolve the issue for all in one way or the other. Just for the record -- I am trying to stay as objectively neutral as I can be; I have my biases too, but given that I don't have the answers either (how do I reconcile scripture and tradition with the experience of people I know?) I guess mostly what you'll read here are my fumblings in the dark.

Boswell's book 'Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality' is an early scholastic contribution to the history of how homosexuality has been treated by the Christian church establishment from the beginning of the Christian era to about the fourteenth century. It won the American Book Award for History in 1981. Boswell (now deceased) was a professor at Yale; I have a friend on faculty at the IU Music School who went to high school with him.

Perhaps Boswell's argument can be summed up fairly easily in that, through examples in contemporary literature and records (legal, theological, literary, etc.), homosexuality was not recognised in the same way that it is today, and therefore that it also was not condemned in the way that it is today by much of the church. Friendships and close relationships often developed into sexual ones; these were not considered unusual. There was a variation from culture to culture, but the widespread condemnation of homosexuality didn't begin until thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when tolerance (not only of this, but of religious opinions in general) ceased to be the rule, as the church (a dominant military, political, and social force as well) attempted to consolidate power.

Boswell's research is extensive and impressive, but his interpretations have remained hotly debated for the 20 years since this book was first published. One scholar-friend of mine who knew Boswell said that his psychological motivation for writing the book (this is a theme that was not designed to win favour in academia at that point in time) was to confront the Catholic church, in which he as a gay man did not feel welcome. And, there is probably some truth to that. Knowing that framework, it is interesting to re-read passages to see where objective scholarship slips into subtle reframing.

Nonetheless, this book provides an excellent historical framework, and cannot be ignored in the current debate. I encountered this book first many years ago when my church was undergoing a discernment process, and it was useful in many ways. Boswell claimed to know of isolated communities and continuing strands where such tolerance continued to the present. He promised on a few occasions (at least semi-publicly) that he would reveal these in the next volume, Same Sex Unions, produced many years later, and an even more controversial text.

56 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for members of a diverse society November 12, 1998

By Bryan Walker

Format:Paperback

I not only had the pleasure of reading this book--surely one of the best works of historical scholarship in the twentieth century--I also had the privilege of taking courses with Professor Boswell. Prof. Boswell demonstrates with convincing scholarship that Christian attitudes toward homosexuality have _always_ been interpretive, and that the interpretations have varied greatly across time. This sharply undercuts the modern American conception, pushed by certain groups, that homophobia is an immutable constant in Christianity. For that reason alone, the book is a must-read for Americans wrestling with the issue of homosexuality. But at the same time, it is a pity that the book is often seen in those terms. The political nature of the issue today means that reactions to Prof. Boswell's work are politicized. But the book can be read by history students as a inspirational primer on method as well. Whether your field is late modern Chinese economic history or Roman military history, this book is a shining example of what historical scholarship is all about.

93 of 122 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A bold, but flawed, pioneering work September 29, 2003

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

It's been more than twenty years since John Boswell's pioneering work on the history of homosexuality first appeared. Boswell argues that originally homosexuality was tolerated and admired in the urban world of the Roman Empire. Contrary to what one may think it was not Christianity per se that reduced this tolerance. In fact, one cannot show that the New Testament was hostile to homosexuality at all. Instead there was a certain decline of tolerance as the urban civilization of Rome collapsed. Yet for much of what we know as the Dark Ages homosexuality was viewed as at most a venial sin, and legal prohibitions against it were limited and ineffective. Indeed as urban civilization recovered by the eleventh and twelfth centuries a flourishing gay subculture arose, celebrating homosexual love. But over the next few centuries as powerful states seeking to enforce their authority arose, new anti-sodomy laws appeared, demanding death for its violators.

There is much in this book that is interesting and informative, and certainly there was no other work like it at the time. We learn about the weaknesses of much of the "natural law" case against homosexuality. Homosexuality is supposedly unnatural because animals do not do it. But anti-homosexuals also argue that homosexuality is wrong because vile animals like hyenas commit it. Of course, there is considerable evidence of homosexual behaviour among animals. And many undesirable traits, such as incest, are endemic among animals. And why should animals be the criterion of what is natural anyway? Anyway, much of the argument on what is perverted sex was based on considerable ignorance of the animal world, such as the false belief that hyenas were hermaphrodites or that oral sex is wrong because weasels conceive through their mouths. The same Christians who denounced homosexuality also vigorously denounced "Lending at interest, sexual intercourse during the menstrual period, jewellery or dyed fabrics, shaving, regular bathing, wearing wigs," and much else. In the eighth century the penance given for a priest who went hunting was allotted at three years, while some homosexual acts only got a year. We are given many samples of homosexual poetry, many of them written by high ranking clergymen, the more tactful of whom were canonized.

Yet this book has a number of major weaknesses that make Boswell much inferior to such other pioneering works of social history as The Making of the English Working Class or Roll Jordan Roll. His distinction between a more tolerant "urban" and a more intolerant "rural" is hopelessly vague. Not all "rural" societies disliked homosexuals. Moreover, the Roman Empire was overwhelmingly rural anyway, more than 90%, with land being the overwhelming source of wealth. To make things more confusing Boswell suggests that the thirteenth century turn had more to do with increasing state authority (also present in the Roman Empire) and increasing xenophobia as part of the crusades (also present during the Roman Empire, and for the twelfth century as well). Boswell displays a certain tendentiousness throughout the book. At one point Boswell suggests that there was less prejudice against the "passive" position in the Roman Empire because certain emperors indulged in it. But since the emperors in question were Caligula and Nero, one suspects that they were not good examples (Boswell also cites Nero as an example of homosexual marriage). Much of the book depends on the argument from silence, a questionable procedure when most Classical evidence has been lost to us.

But the largest problem with the book is Boswell's discussion of scripture. Boswell was both a homosexual and a Catholic and wanted to find a way to reconcile them. He was not successful. His chapter starts out well by pointing out that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is less about the evils of homosexuality than of abusing strangers. But then Boswell has to deal with the discussion of homosexuality in Leviticus, which pronounces it an abomination and demands the death penalty. Boswell argues that since Paul denounced the law Christians need no longer be bound by it. This is clearly tendentious. 2 Timothy refers to the divine inspiration of scripture and the Sermon on the Mount explicitly says that the Law remains in full force until the end. Moreover, Leviticus and Deuteronomy contain moral rules against bestiality, incest and child sacrifice that are still in force. It is revealing that Boswell does not discuss at all the problem of antinomianism or the role of Leviticus and Deuteronomy in Christians thought. If one is a Christian it would be most logical to argue that the law is still in force except (a) where the New Testament explicitly challenges it, (b) when it deals with matters that are now irrelevant (sacrifice ritual), or (c) when it deals with specifically Jewish matters. Boswell also tries to argue that Paul is criticizing not homosexuals but male heterosexuals who betray their nature by indulging in homosexuality. This makes the questionable assumption that people in the first century CE reified people by the sexual acts they committed. Why would Jews like Jesus and Paul, who are so unenthusiastic about marriage, extend to their followers a whole new realm of fornication? Boswell weakly suggests that because heterosexuals produce children who were commonly abandoned and abused, while homosexuals didn't, Christians viewed homosexuality as a lesser problem. But this is mere suggestion; he gives no evidence of such a well developed moral concern in the book. It is not surprising therefore then that scholars such as Robin Lane Fox, Ramsay Macmullen, and David Wright have been critical of Boswell's thesis.