Books: Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 306.76 EAN: 9780226067117 ISBN: 0226067114 Label: University Of Chicago Press Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 442 Publication Date: November 01, 2005 Publisher: University Of Chicago Press Sales Rank: 66105 Studio: University Of Chicago Press
"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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - 3.5 Stars for a Good, But Not Excellent Start Into the Issue
I read the 1981 edition of the 1980 book. With 448 pages the book appears to be exhaustive. However, subtract the bibliography etc. and the 67 p appendixes of quoted and/or translated historic documents and we are left with 338 pages. These in turn have to get halved, because of the extensive footnotes, leaving some 170 regular text pages - a rather thin book, actually.
As was the science book standard at the time, the author shows off his education with copious use of Latin, Old Greek and occasional modern foreign languages in the footnotes, not always translating them, in the case ... Read More
Rating: - Whatever..
Whatever side of the fence you sit, or, indeed, whether on the fence, one thing is certain -- you'll either love or hate this work. It is a thesis. It is a mind-opening presentation of facts and ideas. It is worth reading and begs owning. Whether for or again', you'll only regret not picking it up. Whatever..
Rating: - Required Reading But Not The Final Word
This impressive book, winner of the National Book Award, is an incisive, passionate piece of advocacy scholarship concerning the development of anti-homosexual attitudes in the pre-modern era. It's required reading mostly because of the arguments that it lays out (many of which are regrettably stretched too thin), the sources that deploys and explicates, and the fact that it was the book that really got the ball rolling on further discussion of these issues.
Boswell's main thesis is that intolerance of homosexuality began in earnest only in the 12th Century, and that homosexuality was ... Read More
Rating: - I enjoy this..
I enjoy this..It's very good and phenomenal in that it's the first work of it's kind really. It covers the Greeks to Aquinas. John Boswell is a cutie. This has a wonderfully attractive cover, as well as the original one which is no longer shown of a second-century mosaic. This covers the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. It is extensive with many footnotes..I like it, that's all..It won awards..Go buy this..
Rating: - Rhetorical tour de force, lacking in substantiation.
Boswell's work is an impressive volume which has all the appearance of a powerful academic treatise, offering a revolutionary new interpretation of the attitudes and practices of the early Christian peroid vis-a-vis homosexuality. Unfortunately, the central thesis Boswell offers, that the virulently homophobic standpoint of the modern Church only makes its entry sometime after the 12th century CE, rests on little more than whimsical interpretation of the evidence and inexcusable omission of contrary data.
Boswell fails to consider the congruence of all available evidence from the periods ... Read More
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