Same-Sex Unions In Premodern Europe
Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them—in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.\ \ \ Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not...
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Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them—in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies. Publishers Weekly The acceptance and sanctification of homosexual relations in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches during Medieval Europe are examined in this scholarly work. (June)
PrefaceList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1"What's in a Name?": The Vocabulary of Love and Marriage32"For Family and Country": Heterosexual Matrimony in the Greco-Roman World283"A Friend Inspired by God": Same-Sex Unions in the Greco-Roman World534"This World Is Passing Away": Views of the New Religion1085"What God Has Joined Together": The Development of Nuptial Offices1626"Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediments": Comparison of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Ceremonies of Union1997The History of Same-Sex Unions in Medieval Europe2188"Those Who See and Those Who Do Not . . .": Subsequent Developments: A Look Forward2629Epilogue280Appendix of Translations283Appendix of Documents345Jewish Perspectives364Manuscripts of the Same-Sex Union372The Passion of SS. Serge and Bacchus375Index391
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ The acceptance and sanctification of homosexual relations in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches during Medieval Europe are examined in this scholarly work. (June)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalNot since Boswell's Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1981) have Christians of all creeds confronted a work that makes them look so closely at their notions of the relationship between the church and its gay and lesbian believers. Diligently researched and documented, this immensely scholarly work covers everything from the "paired" saints of Perpetua and Felicitas and Serge and Bacchus to lesbian transvestites in Albania. Examining evidence that the early church celebrated a same-sex nuptial liturgy, Boswell compares both Christian same-sex unions to Christian heterosexual unions and non-Christian same-sex unions to non-Christian heterosexual unions. Appendixes contain, among other things, translations and transcriptions of cited documents. Whether or not minds are changed on the matter will probably fall along sectarian lines, according to current attitudes on homosexuality. However, the work will provoke dialog. A groundbreaking book for academic, public, and theological libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/94.]-Lee Arnold, Historical Society of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia\ \
