The Body and Society

Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity
Twentieth Anniversary Auflage with a New Introduct. Auflage 2008
ISBN: 978-0-231-14407-0
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 568 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 795 g

First published in 1988, Peter Brown's The Body and Society was a groundbreaking study of the marriage and sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Brown focuses on the practice of 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 great writers.

The Body and Society questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped relationships between men and women, Roman aristocracy and slaves, and the married and the celibate. Brown discusses Tertullian, Valentinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, the Desert Fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, among others, and considers asceticism and society in the Eastern Empire, martyrdom and prophecy, gnostic spiritual guidance, promiscuity among the men and women of the church, monks and marriage in Egypt, the ascetic life of women in fourth-century Jerusalem, and the body and society in the early Middle Ages. In his new introduction, Brown reflects on his work's reception in the scholarly community.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brown, Peter (Princeton University)

Brown, Peter

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Frühes Christentum, Patristik, Christliche Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein Kirchliche Bildungseinrichtungen, Diakonie, Caritas
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

PrefaceIntroductionPart I. From Paul to anthony1. Body and City2. From Apostle to Apologist: Sexual Order and Sexual Renunciation in the Early Church3. Martyrdom, Prophecy and Continence: Hermas to Tertullian4. "To Undo the Works of Women": Marcion, Tatian and the Encratites5. "When You Make the Two One": Valentinus and Gnostic Spiritual Guidance6. "A Faint Image of Divine Providence": Clement of Alexandria7. "A Promiscuous Brotherhood and Sisterhood": Men and Women in the Christian Churches8. "I Beseech You: Be Transformed": Origen9. "Walking on Earth, Touching High Heaven's Vault": Porphyry and Methodius10. Church and Body: Cyprian, Mani and Eusebius of CaesareaPart II. asceticism and Society in the Eastern Empire11. The Desert Fathers: Anthony to John Climacus12. "Make to Yourselves Separate Booths": Monks, Women and Marriage in Egypt13. "Daughters of Jerusalem": The Ascetic Life of Women in the Fourth Century14. Marriage and Mortality: Gregory of Nyssa15. Sexuality and the City: John Chrysostom16. "These Are Our Angels": SyriaPart III. Ambrose to Augustine: The Making of the Latin Tradition17. Aula Pudoris: Ambrose18. "Learn of Me a Holy Arrogance": Jerome19. Sexuality and Society: AugustineEpilogue. Body and Society: The Early Middle AgesBibliographyIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Peter Brown, formerly professor of classics and history at the University of California, Berkeley, is the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University and the most prominent scholar of late antiquity (between 250 and 800 A.D.). He is the author of a dozen books, including Augustine of Hippo, Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World, The Rise of Western Christendom, and Poverty and Leadership in the Late Roman Empire.