In his monumental book Peter Brown addresses the practice of permanent sexual renunciation--continence, celibacy, and life-long virginity--that developed in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D.
Brown vividly describes the early Christians and their strange, disturbing preoccupations. He follows in detail the reflection and controversy these notions generated among Christian writers. Among the topics covered are marriage and sexuality in the Roman world, Judaism and the early church, Origen and the tradition of spiritual guidance, sexuality in the desert fathers and Augustine and sexuality. The Body and Society is a significant study on sexuality and the family in the ancient world by a renowned scholar. Besides being of great interest to readers in ancient history and early church history, and to classicists and medievalists, it will engage readers concerned with women's studies and the history of sexuality.
> of Christianity and all the trouble it had before becoming one of the most expanded religions and cultures on our world. Moreover it makes an important step in linking the history of religion and of thought to the history of the human body. Mr. Brown wrote an excellent history book where any person seriuosly interested in the ancient world can find important information. Information, though, is not the only important thing in History, and in this book we can find much more: useful anecdotes are beautifully depicted in the very right place in order to make the thinking and the more practical need of our ancestors more undersandable to our western technological eyes. Also let me add, that this book is the result of some thirty years of reserch and extensive, but deep reeding of the writings and deed of the Fathers of Christianity. This book is, for us, an exceptional chance to read not only the translations of a very experienced translator of ancient literature but also his comments and crossed inquiries.
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Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (Oxford Early Christian Studies)
David G. Hunter
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Book Description
This is the first major study in English of the "heretic" Jovinian and the Jovinianist controversy. David G. Hunter examines early Christian views on marriage and celibacy in the first three centuries and the development of an anti-heretical tradition.
Book Description
Celibacy is a worldwide practice that is often adopted, rarely discussed. Now, in Elizabeth Abbott's fascinating and wide-ranging history, it is examined in all its various forms: shaping religious lives, conditioning athletes and shamans, surfacing in classical poetry and camp literature, resonating in the voices of castrati, and permeating ancient mythology. Found in every society of the past, practiced by both the anonymous and the legendary (St. Catherine, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Elizabeth I, Gandhi), celibacy has as many stories as adherents, and Abbott weaves them into a provocative, seamless tapestry that brings history alive.
Customer Reviews:
Biased.......2006-08-09
I found this book to be a bit biased. I felt the author's ideas and standpoints colored her facts. I would have preferred more objectivity.
A great book.......2006-02-28
It's a highly informative and non-judgemental history of not only celibacy, but also sexuality in general throughout many different times and cultures. I loved the way Abbott managed to relate each form of celibacy to the social, religious, moral and economical circumstances in which it appeared - it gives the reader a broader understanding of societies and individuals who embraced or rejected celibacy.
In addition to this, History of Celibacy is beautifully written, maybe more difficult but extremely pleasurable to read. (It's also good for learning new words, especially if you're a non-native english speaker. I wish I'd read this book before I took my GRE, it would've added at least 50 points to my verbal score)
A wonderfully "tart romp through history"..........2001-12-31
A fabulously well-written book that offers one a great deal of food for thought. Yes, at times agonizingly explicit, but real and humanly written. More than expose or a simple history, but a personal journey, which the author herself took and took something from. Its breadth is commanding and admirable, its style is at once extremely academic and in the same instant entirely readable and smooth flowing.
In this day and age of non-interest in sex yielding implications of psychological imbalance or worse, it is nice to have something to refer to, something that clarifies the history and purpose of celibacy in all its negative and positive implications. An excellently researched and presented treastise.
Fascinating topic; well written; gorgeous paperback cover!.......2001-06-07
I read the hardcover edition of the book, before all the wonderful press it received, but I am enamoured by this paperback cover. It brings the title alive with its lush colors and wonderful cover art. Abbott writes well and brings together a variety of aspects that have long been a part of celibacy. From the various saints who shunned sexual intimacy to the modern-day virgins who've never "had" sex (but have had intimate relations) - Abbott provides a insider's view on this lifestyle.
Book Description
Fr. Stanosz draws from extensive interviews to show how priests are trained for lives of celibacy. While seminarians take their vows of celibacy seriously, problems arise because the structure that supports them in their seminary years cannot help them in their individual parishes.
Customer Reviews:
Careful, methodical study of all relevant primary texts.......2004-03-01
This book launched a reconsideration of the origins of priestly celibacy. An authority no less than Henri de Lubac considered it the 20th century's most significant study in this field. Whether or not his argument holds up, it is indisputablely a careful study of the history of the issue, with many new and original insights, that take into account scholarship up through 1980 or so. The other reviewer raised concerns about the purpose of the book, which I found surprising, because it was a remarkably careful and unpolemical book (which is not true of many other books on this subject.)
I question the purpose of this book.......1999-07-31
If the purpose of this book is to show the historical origins and development of legitimate, differing East/West practices, it is fine. If its purpose is to argue that all churches should practice the discipline of clerical celibacy, or that clerical celibacy is a doctrinal rather than a disciplinary imperative, it is valueless.
The ordination of married men in the Catholic Church is not an "exception to the rules" nor is it contrary to or inconsistent with Catholic doctrine. Only the Latin, of 22 Catholic Churches sui iuris in communion with the Bishop of Rome, requires the discipline of clerical celibacy by canon law. The canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, is legitimately different and not inferior.
Do I think married men should be ordained in the Latin Catholic Church? Only as exceptions; the canon law should not be changed, in my opinion. Do I think married men should be ordained to the priesthood in the Eastern Catholic Churches? Yes, whenever it is consistent with their individual traditions.
This is a disciplinary, not a doctrinal, issue.
Book Description
Married Catholic Priests shows the remarkable experience of American Catholic priests who marry. In part a fascinating historical review, the book includes varied experiences of married priests in our time, whether active in the church or not. Kowalski manifests a strong faith, a positive affirmation of church and priesthood, and a welcoming embrace of the stirrings of the Spirit in these times.
Customer Reviews:
The amazing truth.......2006-03-13
Rome has for what ever reason abondoned a married priesthood. It is amazing that the first 10 popes were married and we can find reference of Jesus healing Peter's mother in law in the scriptures. Rome could take a lesson from the Orthodox who have both married and unmarried priests and function very well. The book is an eye opener.
Logical Argument from a still-loyal Roman Catholic priest.......2005-05-30
Tony Kowalski still loves the Roman Catholic Church whose highest authorities have mostly shunned him for over 30 years. This is clearly evident from the tone of this well-written book which covers the history of the celibate priesthood and the current state of celibacy among Catholic priests. Tony is always respectful in his approach, yet makes it quite evident from multiple examples that the current stance of the Catholic Church is irrational and hypocrital (my words, not his.)
While it is evident from the text that Tony wishes the Church to be welcoming of ALL of God's children, I was somewhat disappointed that he didn't come across any examples of openly gay priests in acknowledged, commited relationships who would just as likely be seen as outcasts. But maybe that's a topic for a whole new book.
For Roman Catholics who mistakenly think that a celibate priesthood is somehow based on Christ's teachings, this book is a must-read. I exhort those Catholics to learn the history of the celibate priesthood and see just how arbitrary, and absurdly unnecessary, it really is.
Customer Reviews:
Continence, Digamy and other aspects of Early Clerical Sexual Discipline.......2005-09-08
This is a superb examination, using original sources in the Greek and Latin, of how the original partial abstinance required of the Jewish priesthood during their period of sacrficial service combined with customs of digamy and continence developed into the modern concept of celibacy. The book shows how the earlier concepts of sexual abstinance were much more comprehensive and demanding than what we previoulsy believed and how counter-cultural they are to our "anything goes" pop culture of today. The scholarship is outstanding and the summaries following each chapter show in a "common law" sort logic how customary practices eventually were codified beginning with the Council os Elvira, 306 A.D., (present day Granada in Spain). I recommend the book very highly.
Seeking Throme.......2005-04-13
I would like to contact Throme regarding his review of this book. Would you be allowed to forward this request on to him
Edgar Davie
211 37th Av No. #c24
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Merits a closer look.......2003-03-22
Contrary to the previous reviwer, in skimming through this book in a library, I was impressed by his scholarship. He may be right, or he may be wrong, but like many recent scholars, he raises some interesting challenges to conventional ideas about the origins of celibacy (which actually only date to the late 1800s). His book deserves a careful read for those who are interested in the subject. A more thourough work, however, is Cochini's book "The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy" (1981) which provided the basis for much of what Feid argues.
Intellectual Hogwash.......2003-01-08
If ever there were a work that started out with a premise and then worked toward its solution, this is it. Stefan Heid is so set on "making the case" for clerical celibacy that he puts aside common sense. Lost in his own intellectual mirage, Heid takes gross liberties with the words spoken by St. Paul, the early fathers, and Christ himself.
In 1 Cor. 9:5, Heid changes Paul's words: "Do we not have the right to take about with us a wife," to read "Do we not have the right to take about with us a sister."
When setting forth the early restrictions on becoming a bishop, one of them being you may not have married a second time, Heid makes the quantum leap to infer that that then must mean that the priest was celibate with his first wife from the time of his ordination.
When Paul is writing to the Corinthians in I Cor. 7,8,9 and tells them specifically that he is not asking them to be celibate as he is, but to live the life that has been given them, Heid says Paul is really talking to the Apostles as well, and is really asking them to answer to the higher calling: celibacy. And Heid says: "Here lies the basis for the legitimacy of clerical continence."
If this is academia, give me simplicity, Oh Lord!!!!
Book Description
An Ordered Love is the first detailed study of sex roles in the utopian communities that proposed alternatives to monogamous marriage: The Shakers (1779-1890), the Mormons (1843-90), and the Oneida Community (1848-79).
The lives of men and women changed substantially when they joined one of the utopian communities. Louis J. Kern challenges the commonly held belief that Mormon polygamy was uniformly downgrading to women and that Oneida pantagamy and Shaker celibacy were liberating for them. Rather, Kern asserts that changes in sexual behavior and roles for women occurred in ideological environments that assumed women were inferior and needed male guidance. An elemental distrust of women denied the Victorian belief in their moral superiority, attacked the sanctity of the maternal role, and institutionalized the dominance of men over women.
These utopias accepted the revolutionary idea that the pleasure bond was the essence of marriage. They provided their members with a highly developed theological and ideological position that helped them cope with the ambiguities and anxieties they felt during a difficult transitional stage in social mores.
Analysis of the theological doctrines of these communities indicates how pervasive sexual questions were in the minds of the utopians and how closely they were related to both reform (social perfection) and salvation (individual perfection). These communities saw sex as the point at which the demands of individual selfishness and the social requirements of self-sacrifice were in most open conflict. They did not offer their members sexual license, but rather they established ideals of sexual orderliness and moral stability and sought to provide a refuge from the rampant sexual anxieties of Victorian culture.
Kern examines the critical importance of considerations of sexuality and sexual behavior in these communities, recognizing their value as indications of larger social and cultural tensions. Using the insights of history, psychology, and sociology, he investigates the relationships between the individual and society, ideology and behavior, and thought and action as expressed in the sexual life of these three communities. Previously unused manuscript sources on the Oneida Community and Shaker journals and daybooks reveal interesting and sometimes startling information on sexual behavior and attitudes.
Customer Reviews:
brilliant historical synthesis.......1998-09-23
Dr. Kern is one of the foremost intellectual historians in matters concerning alternative societies. I highly recommend this book. It is meticulously researched and highly informative. One should check out many of his historical/cultural articles for more of his work.
Book Description
In the last half-century, the number of Catholic priests has plummeted by 40% while the number of Catholics has skyrocketed, up 65%. The specter of a faith defined by full pews and empty altars hangs heavy over the church. The root cause of this priest shortage is the church's insistence on mandatory celibacy. Given the potential recruitment advantages of abandoning the celibacy requirement, why, Richard A. Schoenherr asks, is the conservative Catholic coalition--headed by the pope--so adamantly opposed to a married clergy? The answer, he argues, is that accepting married priests would be but the first step toward ordaining women and thus forever altering the demographics of a resolutely male religious order. Yet Schoenherr believes that such change is not only necessary but unavoidable if the church is to thrive. The church's current stop-gap approach of enlisting laypeople to perform all but the central element of the mass only further serves to undermine the power of the celibate priesthood. Perhaps most importantly, doctrinal changes, a growing pluralism in the church, and the feminist movement among nuns and laywomen are exerting a growing influence on Catholicism. Concluding that the collapse of celibate exclusivity is all but inevitable, Goodbye Father presents an urgent and compelling portrait of the future of organized Catholicism.
Customer Reviews:
Helpful to More Than Catholics.......2003-03-05
Not coming from a Roman Catholic tradition, I've been intrigued by the debate surrounding the celebacy of the priesthood and the male exclusivity of the clergy. After all, other denominations have moved ahead, not without struggle to be sure, but moved nonetheless, to model what it means for all of God's people to have a place at table, and to officiate in the offerings that the table provides.
Richard Schoenherr's "Goodbye Father" provides powerful insights to those of us laypeople who struggle with one's appropriate role in the church, and who are looking for a deeper analysis of this religious tradition.
In his discussion of why dropping celebacy will happen prior to changing the patriarchy of the ministry, Schoenherr defines how the embeddedness of patriarchy, the decline of that partriarchy in other denominations, and the depth of the debate about marital-status exclusivity contributes to his thesis. That discussion provides clues into the struggle the church faces, but also gives hope that the stance on celebacy can change.
That today's issues are now indicative of Schoenherr's predictions demonstrate the wisdom with which the author presents a significant contribution to the role of men and women in the church. This book deserves a read by anyone concerned about those roles, regardless of the denominational background of the reader.
The Heart of the Matter.......2003-02-17
Goodbye Father attends to the heart of the crisis facing the U.S. Catholic Church-the quality of pastoral care for the people. Schoenherr understands that the religious care of the people revolves around an ordained priesthood and the Mass so the quantity and quality of priests truly matter.
For Schoenherr, life is a paschal mystery in that people are involved at every moment in linking their lives to the death and resurrection of Christ. The liturgy makes that connection more powerfully present in people's lives. The limitation of the Catholic priesthood to celibate males denies people who are thirsty for spiritual life an adequate level of religious care. The ordination of married people and women promises a greater number and deeper quality of priests.
Goodbye Father is informative of my thinking and formative of my aspirations. It humbly invites us to think more deeply and act more courageously in regard to what may well be the will of God.
The Key to the Crisis in the Church.......2003-02-14
Goodbye Father attends to the heart of the crisis facing the U.S. Catholic Church-the quality of pastoral care for the people. Schoenherr understands that the religious care of the people revolves around an ordained priesthood and the Mass, so the quantity and quality of priests truly matter. For Schoenherr, life is a paschal mystery in that people are involved at every moment in linking their lives to the life, death, and ressurection of Christ. The liturgy makes that connection more powerfully present in people's lives. The limitation of the Catholic priesthood to celibate males denies people who are thirsty for spiritual life an adequate level of religious care. The ordination of married people and women promises a greater number and deeper quality of priests. Goodbye Father is informative of my thinking and formative of my aspirations. It humbly invites us to think more deeply and act more courageously in regard to what may well be the will of God.
This Book Looks at Big Picture.......2003-01-26
Goodbye Father: the Celibate Male Priesthood and the Future of the Catholic Church" by the late sociologist Richard Schoenherr deserves a lot of praise for its brilliant analysis of the priest shortage, present and future. But the real value of the book, in my opinion, is its insistence that the shortage cannot be viewed as some interesting but isolated phenomenon. As David Yamane, who took over the editing of the book after Schoenherrýs untimely death, notes in the Introduction, the shortage is only one manifestation of a whole network of interacting trends pressing for change in many directions. Here are the others:
* A decline in dogmatism and a rise in pluralism of world views.
* A demise of the cultural control that developed out of the churchýs European and Western origins.
* Doctrinal changes coming out of Vatican II, particularly those that have weakened belief in the absolute superiority of celibacy as a way to holiness.
* The erosion of male control over church ministry, largely due to the feminist movement, especially among nuns and laywomen.
* Increased lay participation in ministerial and sacramental roles.
* A growing recognition of the "saving power" of the Scriptures.
In other words, the book analyzes how all these trends are working together and argues that isolating one or the other and working on it alone is not going to get the church out of the mess it's in. It's a heavy read but I don't see how any thoughtful person can dismiss its overwhelming logic.
Focusing on the Heart of the Matter.......2003-01-10
In the past few years, Catholic clergy and laity alike have expressed concern about and frustration with Vatican policy governing church practice and policy. The Catholic church has long held that ordination to the priesthood is reserved for males, that homosexual behavior is sinful, and, of course, that pedophilia is wrong. In addition, the church has severely limited the extent to which laity can participate in the governance of the church. Until recently, the laity has done little more than gently resist the first practice, question the second and agree with the third.
Recent revelations about the extent to which pedophilia has been practiced among Catholic priests and the efforts undetaken by some high ranking church officials to hide this information, has shocked, then angered and finally mobilized laity and priests to resist autocratic church policy and to work toward church reform. Laity are now insisting on a voice in church governance and access to church records in order to avoid scandals in the future.
Perhaps if the clergy and laity had taken seriously Richard Schoenherr's 1993 book Full Pews and Empty Altars, they would have begun their efforts to reform the church earlier and even avoided the present crisis. In that book, Schoenherr accurately predicted the decline in the number of priests over the next couple of decades and the implications of this decline for parish life. However, church authorities either ignored or disparaged the findings of this careful social science study and the laity was not activated by its important message. The initial reaction of the clergy to Schoenherr's latest book, Goodbye Father, posthumously published in 2002, has been lukewarm at best. However, if early published reviews of the book are an indication, the laity is poised to take this study into account as they work for change in the church.
In Goodbye Father, Schoenherr moves beyond his earlier work. He presents convincing theoretical and empirical arguements leading to the conclusion that the shortage of US clergy and the changing composition of the US laity will necessarily result in voluntary celicacy for clergy and, within three or four decades, to the ordination of women. The conceptual structure Schoenherr builds to support his conclusion is scholarship at its best and the data analysis is careful, precise and sophisticated.
This book should be read by laity interested in change in American society in general and reform of the American Catholic church in particular. It provides important insights that can guide strategies to increase laity participation in church policy and to strengthen and enhance church ministry. It should be ignored by clergy and laity, and in particular by church hierarchy, at their own peril. To ignore the insights, forecasts and conclusions of this brilliant book is to deprive oneself of a deeper understanding of the profound changes taking place in the contemporary Catholic church. These insights, in turn, should suggest wise strategies to effect church reform.
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