Contextualizing Gender in Early Christian Discourse by Caroline Vander Stichele; Todd PennerBuilding 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 Brownstudy 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 Kueflerargues 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.
by Jennifer Snow
Last Updated Oct 1, 2024
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Sexuality & Early Christianity
Specters of Paul: sexual difference in early Christian thought by Benjamin H. Dunningsexual 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.
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Ancient Christianity
Studying Gender in Classical Antiquity by Lin Foxhallinvestigates 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.