Yale University Library Research Guides: Early Christianity and Patristics: Gender &amp; Sexuality

Gender & Early Christianity

Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse by Caroline Vander Stichele; Todd Penner Building on feminist and post-colonial insights, explores the importance of gender in both text and context and discuss the diverse issues involved in interpretation as they relate to gender, sex, and sexuality. illustrates gender-critical approach with concrete examples from the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Online available.
The Body and Society: men, women, and sexual renunciation in early Christianity by Peter Brown study of the marriage and sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. focuses on permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and lifelong virginity-in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. and traces early Christians' preoccupations with sexuality and the body in the work of the period's writers. Online available.
The Manly Eunuch: masculinity, gender ambiguity, and Christian ideology in late antiquity by Mathew Kuefler argues that the collapse of the Roman army, an increasingly autocratic government, and growing restrictions on the traditional rights of men within marriage and sexuality all led to an endemic crisis in masculinity: men of Roman aristocracy, who had always felt themselves to be soldiers, statesmen, and the heads of households, became, by their own definition, unmanly. Christian writers crafted a new masculine ideal. Online available.
Forming Femininity in Antiquity: Eve, gender, and ideologies in the Greek life of Adam and Eve by Vita Daphna Arbel investigates depictions of Eve in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve. Online available.

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Sexuality & Early Christianity

Specters of Paul: sexual difference in early Christian thought by Benjamin H. Dunning sexual difference was not completely stable as a conceptual category across the spectrum of formative Christian thinking. explores second- and third-century Christian thought with particular attention to the ways the legacy of the apostle Paul fueled. Online available.
Slandering the Jew: sexuality and difference in early Christian texts by Susanna Drake examines representations of Jewish sexuality in early Christian writings that use accusations of carnality, fleshliness, bestiality, and licentiousness as strategies to differentiate the "spiritual" Christian from the "carnal" Jew. Online available.
From Shame to Sin: the Christian transformation of sexual morality in late antiquity by Kyle Harper examines the rise of Christianity as a turning point in the history of sexuality and helps us see how the roots of modern sexuality are grounded in an ancient religious revolution. Online available.

Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Ancient Christianity

Studying Gender in Classical Antiquity by Lin Foxhall investigates how varying practices of gender shaped people's lives and experiences across the societies of ancient Greece and Rome. how gender was linked with socio-political characteristics such as wealth, status, age and life-stage. Online available.

Gender, Sexuality, and Early Christianity Sources

Marriage and Sexuality in Early Christianity by David G. Hunter sourcebook.

Ancient Christianity & LGBTQ Studies

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by John Boswell landmark history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the early Christian West. Online available.
Love Between Women by Bernadette J. Brooten examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Online available.