CROMPTON, L: Homosexuality & Civilization

Harvard University Press, 2003

622 pages

History, sexuality, lesbian and gay history

How have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? In a narrative tour de force, Louis Crompton chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution, as he compares the Christian West with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab Spain, imperial China, and pre-Meiji Japan.

Ancient Greek culture celebrated same-sex love in history, literature, and art, making high claims for its moral influence. By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World.

Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of "sodomites" in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters--Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio--often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great.

Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece.

Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, Homosexuality and Civilization is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past.

For my own assessment, see "On Reading Louis Crompton"

For other reviews, see:

Reed Business Information:

In this notable monograph, impressive for its breadth and readability, an early pioneer of gay and lesbian studies attempts the Herculean task of chronicling the history of homosexuality in Europe and parts of Asia from Homer to the 18th century. In a series of short vignettes, Crompton, emeritus professor of English at the University of Nebraska, relates the "rich and terrible" stories of men and women who have been immortalized, celebrated, shunned or executed for the special attention they paid to members of their own sex. Two chapters on China and Japan are a welcome addition to the usual Eurocentric focus. ....Crompton's work will be valuable to scholars of all stripes. (Oct.)

International Gay and Lesbian Review:

Though he has made major contributions to gay studies (especially his book “Byron and Greek Love”), “Homosexuality & Civilization” is his masterpiece

Contents:

Preface

Early Greece 776 -400 BCE

Judea 900BC - 600 CE

Classical Greec 480 -323 BCE

Rome and Greece 323 BCE -138 CE

Christians and Pagans 1- 565 CE

Darkness Descends 476 -1049

The Medieval World 1050 -1321

Imperial China 500 BCE - 1840

Italy in the Renaissance 1321 - 1609

Spain and the Inquisition 1407 -1700

France from Calvin to Louis XIV 1517 - 1715

England from the Reformation to William III

Pre-Meiji Japan 800 -1868

Patterns of Persecution 1700 - 1783

Sapphic Lovers 1700 -1793

The Enlightenment 1730 -1810.

Conclusion

DAVIES & LOUGHLIN: Sex These Days

Essays on Theology, Sexuality and Society

Sheffield Academic Press

223 pages

"What has been lost, what has been gained, in replacing sexual orthodoxy with the 'heresies' of postmodern sexualities? In the recent past-even within living memory-sex has usually been a matter of monogamous heterosexual marriage and the procreation of children. Other sexual practices were seen as deviations from the 'patriarchal' norm. Today things are different, and western liberal societies promote and celebrate a growing multiplicity of sexual, familial and procreational practices and relationships. Nine writers assess the directions in which our societies are being led."

CONTRIBUTORS:

Tina Beattie: teaches feminist theology at the University of Bristol

Jon Davies: Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies , University of Newcastle on Tyne

Norman Davies: Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, Department of Religious Studies , University of Newcastle on Tyne

Janette Gray RSM: A Sister of Mercy currently undertaking doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge; author of Neither Escaping nor Exploiting Sex: Women's Celibacy

Gerard Loughlin: Senior Lecturer, Head of Department of Religious Studies, University of Newcastle on Tyne

Phillip Mellor: Lecturer in Religious Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds.

Chris Shilling: Senior Research Fellow, Depatment of Cultural and Historical Studies, University of Portsmouth

Alan Storkey: Chair of Movement for Christian Democracy, author of Marriage and its Modern Crisis: Reparing Married Life.

Elizabeth Stuart: Senior Lecturer, University of Glamorgan; co-editor of the journal, Theology and Sexuality.

Adrian Thatcher: Professor and Director of Centre for Chrisitan Theology and Education, Uni versity College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth.

Linda Woodhead: Lecturer in Religious studies, University of Lancaster

FUERSTEIN: Sacred Sexuality

The Erotic Spirit in the World's Great Religions

Inner Traditions, 2003 (Illustrated Reprint)

256 pages

Multifaith, Sexuality, Spirituality

A historical, cross-cultural survey of sexuality as a sacred spiritual practice

• Examines sacred sexuality in the world's religious and mystery traditions

• Explores contemporary sexual stress syndrome resulting from the absence of the sacred in sexual practice

• Reveals how to find the sacred in the ordinary

This book examines the history of sexuality as a sacramental act. In spite of our culture's recent sexual liberalizations, sexual intimacy often remains unfulfilling. Georg Feuerstein instructs that the fulfillment we long for in our sex lives can only be attained once we have explored the spiritual depths of our erotic natures.

Feuerstein delves into a wide variety of spiritual traditions--including Christianity, Judaism, goddess worship, Taoism, and Hinduism--in search of sacred truths regarding sexuality. He reveals that all of these great teachings share the hidden message that spirituality is, in essence, erotic and that sexuality is inherently spiritual. From the erotic cult of the Great Mother and the archaic ritual of hieros gamos (sacred marriage) to the institution of sacred prostitution and the erotic spirituality practiced in the mystery traditions, Feuerstein offers a wealth of historical practices and perspectives that serve as the bases for a positive sexual spirituality suited to our contemporary needs.

GLASER: Coming Out to God

Glaser, Chris

Coming Out to God

Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men

168 Pages

Catholic, Spirituality, Prayer, Lesbian & Gay

This is a collection of prayers written from an explicitly gay perspective. I particularly liked Glaser's introduction, in which he argues that contrary to popular practice, sensuality and sensousness is deeply embedded in ancient traditions of worship:

"The prophet Miriam led women in a dance celebrating God’s deliverance of her people from Pharaoh’s armies. King David danced almost naked in the religious procession bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem….. The body was not originally confined in worship to sitting, standing and kneeling, as in most churches today. Worship was an invitation to dance, in celebration and in service. Worship was a bodily and sensual experience."

"Sexuality and spirituality are not opposing g forces, as is frequently supposed today. Instead, both draw people into relationship. Sexuality draws us into physical relationships: touching, hugging…… kissing and intercourse. Spirituality draws us into relationships that both incl ude and transcend bodies because it includes and transcends that which is visible……Both our sexual and spiritual powers are holy, and therefore both my be profaned. At their holiest, these powers lead to love in all its many expressions. At their most profane, they may lead to apathy or hate. The integrity of both sexual and spiritual powers is called the soul.

Christianity sanctifies both body…and spirit …clearly by its single most revolutionary theological assertion: God’s “Word became flesh” (John 1:14)

He then continues the dancing theme but creating an image of Sensuality and Spirituality as two strangers at a dance, wary of each other, trying to assert superiority before finally finding a true partnership in dance. In this partnership, Glaser argues, lies integrity.

"For most of us, our spirituality dances awkwardly with our sexuality, if at all. Because we are taught that sexuality and spirituality are opposing forces, we either allow our spirituality to intimidate or dominate our sexuality, or we ignore our spirituality to enjoy our sexuality, or we do a little bit of both. "

"Yet in Christian tradition there have been moments of insight that serve as correction to the tendency to separate sexuality and spirituality. In the late fourteenth century, Julian of Norwich wrote, “Our sensuality is grounded in Nature, in compassion, and in Grace…in our sensuality, God is… God is the means whereby our Substance and our Sensuality are kept together so as never to be apart”.

He concludes:

"So let us enjoy our spiritual as well as our sexual lovemaking and the intimacy and integrity they may afford us, for, therby, we aqre reminded hat we belong in God's world: created in God's image, called for community, and citizens of a spiritual commonwealth."

Strongly Recommended

From Google books:

"In this collection of sixty prayers . . . Chris Glaser opens new vistas to us in prayer, discipleship, and the relationship between spirituality and sexuality. . . . This book is a classic in devotional literature which one will return to again and again".--Merrill M. Follansbee, co-founder of the Sacramento chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays."

KENNEDY: The Unhealed Wound

The Church and Human Sexuality

St Martin's Press, 2002

214 pages

Catholic, theology, sexuality

"Kennedy, a psychologist, former priest, and a leading Catholic author and scholar, addresses one of the most compelling yet undiscussed issues in the Church: human sexuality. The Unhealed Wound is a penetrating and insightful study of the unresolved conflicts Catholics face regarding both their sexuality and spirituality, deep conflicts which grow more and more serious as they remain unaddressed within the Church.

He astutely yet respectfully takes to task a faith that—despite the reality of erotic love as a natural and human aspect of life itself—condemns birth control, marriage for priests, and sex outside of marriage. The Unhealed Wound also examines the Church's formidable hierarchy, challenging those clerics who uphold papal edicts unthinkingly. Articulately postulating our need not only to understand but celebrate our own sexuality, this book will engender both controversy and heated dialogue among today's scholars, students, and believers of Catholicism."

SPONG: The Sins of Scripture

Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God

"In the history of the Western World, the Bible has been a perpetual source of inspiration and guidance for countless Christians. However, this Bible has also left a trail of pain. It is undeniable that the Bible is not always used for good. Sometimes the Bible can seem overtly evil. Sometimes its texts are terrible. Bishop John Shelby Spong boldly approaches those texts that have been used through history to justify the denigration or persecution of others while carrying with them the implied and imposed authority of the claim that they were the "Word of God." As he exposes and challenges what he calls the "terrible texts of the Bible", laying bare the evil done by these texts in the name of God, he also seeks to redeem these texts, hoping to recover their ultimate depth and purpose. Spong looks specifically at texts used to justify homophobia, anti-Semitism, treating women as second-class humans, corporal punishment, and environmental degradation, but he also delivers a new picture of how Christians can use the Bible today. As Spong battles against the way the Bible has been used throughout history, he provides a new framework, introducing people to a proper way to engage this holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition."

SULLIVAN: Virtually Normal

SULLIVAN, ANDREW:

Virtually Normal

An Argument About Homosexuality
(Picador, 1995)

"No subject has divided contemporary America more bitterly than homosexuality. Addressing the full range of the debate in this pathbreaking book, Andrew Sullivan, the former editor of The New Republic, restores both reason and humanity to the discussion over how a predominantly heterosexual society should deal with its homosexual citizens.

Sympathetically yet relentlessly, Sullivan assesses the prevailing public positions on homosexuality--from prohibitionist to liberationist and from conservative to liberal. In their place, he calls for a politics of homosexuality that would guarantee the rights of gays and lesbians without imposing tolerance. At once deeply personal and impeccably reasoned, written with elegance and wit, Virtually Normal will challenge readers of every persuasion; no book is more likely to transform out sexual politics in the coming decades."

WILLIAMS, C A: Roman homosexuality:

ideologies of masculinity in classical antiquity
Oxford University Press US, 1999

History, Roman, Sexuality, Homosexuality

This book provides a thoroughly documented discussion of ancient Roman ideologies of masculinity and sexuality with a focus on ancient representations of sexual experience between males. It gathers a wide range of evidence from the second century B.C. to the second century A.D. -- above all from such literary texts as courtroom speeches, love poetry, philosophy, epigram, and history, but also graffiti and other inscriptions as well as artistic artifacts -- and uses that evidence to reconstruct the contexts within which Roman texts were created and had their meaning. The book takes as its starting point the thesis that in order to understand the Roman material, we must make the effort to set aside any pre-conceptions we might have regarding sexuality, masculinity, and effeminacy.

“Williams' thorough, unrelenting demonstration of the active/passive paradigm and its indifference to female/male distinctions is a critical step in clearing away modern preconceptions and understanding Roman attitudes and values on their own terms. His broom effectively sweeps aside modern assumptions projected by progressive ‘essentialists' like Taylor — who identifies the cult of Cybele as a gay subculture but whose own comparison of Cybele's devotees with Indian hijras shows that these priests were not essentially same-sex oriented so much as transgender individuals — as well as by conservative classicists, who casually apply to Romans even such culturally laden expressions as “overt homosexual practice”. – James Jopes, International Gay & Lesbian Review