This startling study of early Christian attitudes toward sexuality begins with an account of the different stances adopted by the Churchfrom the Early Fathers view that sex and the female body were irredeemably unholy, to Augustines contention that sex was natural, but lust was evil. While the Church Fathers struggled to reach consistent theoretical conclusions, the underlying conflation of women with sex meant that patristic statements on chastity, virginity and marriage effectively read as ecclesiastical law governing womens conduct.
Joyce Salisbury explains the relationship between Church doctrine and the position of women by placing these official views alongside an ascetic tradition which resisted the constraints imposed by sexual intercourse. Through an examination of texts of female and popular authorship, and the extraordinary lives of seven women saintsincluding the transvestites Castissima and Pelagiashe presents a markedly different picture of sexual and social roles. For many of these women, celibacy became a form of emancipation.
Church Fathers, Independent Virgins bears witness to the entrenched power of the Church to oppress, the continuing power of women to overcome, and the enduring effects of medieval sexual attitudes.

Joyce E. Salisbury

Verso Editions

New Left Books

Verso Books

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

1991-03-17

US, 1991

Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-157) and index.

vii, 169 pages ; 24 cm
"Verso is the imprint of New Left Books"--T.p. verso
Bibliography: p. 149-157
Includes index

2024-11-05