Library - Bibliographies - Books - Christianity and Homosexuality

At a time when strictures against homosexuality are the subject of impassioned debate, this groundbreaking work of scholarship has generated extraordinary controversy. For in Same-Sex Unions in Premodenrn Europe, Yale historian John Boswell, one of our most respected authorities on the Middle Ages, produces extensive 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 that bear striking resemblance to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.

Drawing on sources in a wide range of languages--and on examples that range from the fourth-century legend of Saints Serge and Bacchus to the ceremonial union of the Byzantine emperors Basil I and Michael III--Boswell boldly reveals how the same tradition that looked askance at all sexuality could also encompass--and at times idealize--loving partnerships between two men or women. Most impressively, he produces actual examples of ceremonies in which such love was formally consecrated until modern times. The result is one of those rare works of scholarship that has the power to transform the way we live now--even as it revises our understanding of the past. -- from the back cover

Library - Bibliographies - Books - Christianity and Homosexuality