Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church [Paperback]

Uta Ranke-Heineman (Author), Peter Heinegg (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1991

This is a book which criticises the oppression of women in the Catholic Church and in Western society. It begins with ancient, pre-Christian taboos and the relatively healthy attitudes of the ancient Jews towards sexual matters, and presents evidence that the early Christians chose pagan models of sexual conduct, and not the Jewish perspective. The book argues that from the apostle Paul to Pope John Paul II, the Church has denigrated sex, degraded women, and championed a perverse ideal of celibacy which, according to the author, stems from a misinterpretation of Christ's words in Matthew 19:11. The book suggests that the Church has glorified Mary's virginity, implying that all normal conception and childbearing are somehow polluted, and has denied the fact that Jesus had siblings. The book shows that the Church has damned birth control, campaigned fiercely against masturbation, which is never mentioned much less forbidden, in the Bible, and has even banned the use of condoms by AIDS patients.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A bestseller in Europe, this erudite, impassioned attack on the Catholic Church's hostility toward sexual pleasure, women and the body is sure to spark controversy. German Catholic theologian Ranke-Heinemann argues that the historic Jesus opposed biases against women and evinced a positive attitude toward marriage but celibate theologians misinterpreted his message as a call to renounce marriage. Theology became the business of bachelors; sex was equated with sin. Excoriating the Church Fathers for their contemptuous attitude toward women, the author reviews the Church's positions on infanticide and abortion (often said to be the same), its revulsion for homosexuality and its "embittered struggle" against contraception. The Virgin Birth, she contends, is a New Testament metaphor, not a historical event. For expressing this opinion, she lost her ecclesiastical license to teach at a German university in 1987. Her scholarly polemic in Heinegg's flowing translation is crammed with absorbing sexual and religious lore.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This broadside against the Catholic church's approach to sexuality portrays it as misogynistic, guilt-inducing, and joyless. The author accuses the church of ignoring Jesus' loving attitude toward women and the healthy sexuality of Judaism, adopting instead the jaundiced attitude of Gnosticism and Stoicism. She has almost nothing favorable to say concerning scores of theologians and church lead ers: Augustine, whom Ranke-Heinemann believes was mentally ill, and Aquinas are discussed in especially unfavorable terms. The author was ousted from the Catholic theology chair at the University of Essen in Germany because of her writings on Mariology, and this work is already a cause celebre in Europe. It's easy to see why. Interested laypeople will want to explore the controversy for themselves.
- Richard S. Watts, San Bernardino Cty . Lib., Cal.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140165002
• ISBN-13: 978-0140165005
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Things That Need to be Said, March 18, 2000

By 

Abelard Spring - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church (Paperback)

This book was a revelation for me. It opened up avenues for research and exploration that I was not yet ready to open on my own.

Did you ever have an intuition that everything was not as simple and rosey as some would have you believe? Did you ever think that there was more to the story than was being revealed? If so, then this book is an excellent resource for you for topics such as misogyny, celibacy, sexuality, family planning and morality.

I am a Roman Catholic and a religious educator, but far from finding the book to be shocking or full of "dirty words," I found it to be an insightful challenge to the church to return again to the central teaching of Jesus and to turn away from its obsession with genitalia and what people do with them. There is more to faith than that. And only by embracing the truth of our past can we grow beyond it.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For anyone who thinks religion isnt dangerous., October 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church (Paperback)

What they made of Uta Ranke-Heinemann in the faculty of theology at Heidelberg doesn't bear thinking about. But I would point out to Cardinal O'Connor that the only "dirty words" in this book issue from the mouths and pens of Catholic clerics. If anything I would say that the author is too restrained. She is, after all, recording more than nineteen hundred years of the most maddeningly-illogical, puerile, foul-mouthed, dyspeptic and vicious misogyny being perpetrated in the name of the "universal church". That her anger seeps through so rarely is a great testimony to her control. The facts, as she clearly sees, speak for themselves.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peeling back layers of hatred, July 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church (Paperback)

This scholarly but accessible book details the way in which a deep mistrust of pleasure, and therefore women, came to be a defining characteristic of the Christian church. Focusing particularly on Roman Catholicism, Ranke-Heinemann shows that marginalization of women and sexual repression are not inherent in Catholic belief, but have taken center stage over centuries of interpretation by celibate men.

Cardinal O'Connor argues that this book is like "scrawling dirty words about the church". As a long-lapsed Catholic girl, I disagree. This view of a forgiving, inclusive church is the only thing that could ever get me to go back to Mass. Publicity like this is exactly what the church needs.