Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient ChristianityEarly Christians used charges of adultery, incest, and lascivious behavior to demonize their opponents, police insiders, resist pagan rulers, and define what it meant to be a Christian. Christians frequently claimed that they, and they alone were sexually virtuous, comparing themselves to those marked as outsiders, especially non-believers and "heretics," who were said to be controlled by lust and unable to rein in their carnal desires. True or not, these charges allowed Christians to present themselves as different from and morally superior to those around them. Through careful, innovative readings, Jennifer Knust explores the writings of Paul, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and other early Christian authors who argued that Christ alone made self-mastery possible. Rejection of Christ led to both immoral sexual behavior and, ultimately, alienation and punishment from God. Knust considers how Christian writers participated in a long tradition of rhetorical invective, a rhetoric that was often employed to defend status and difference. Christians borrowed, deployed, and reconfigured classical rhetorical techniques, turning them against their rulers to undercut their moral and political authority. Knust also examines the use of accusations of licentiousness in conflicts between rival groups of Christians. Portraying rival sects as depraved allowed accusers to claim their own group as representative of "true Christianity." Knust's book also reveals the ways in which sexual slurs and their use in early Christian writings reflected cultural and gendered assumptions about what constituted purity, morality, and truth. In doing so, Abandoned to Lust highlights the complex interrelationships between sex, gender, and sexuality within the classical, biblical, and early-Christian traditions. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... cultural critics over the last several decades.1 Of course the impeachment was about power , power framed and negotiated in terms of accusations about sex . The trial of a former American president is only the most recent example of a ...
... cultural critics over the last several decades.1 Of course the impeachment was about power , power framed and negotiated in terms of accusations about sex . The trial of a former American president is only the most recent example of a ...
Page 3
... cultural assertions about sex and morality while providing evidence of competitive power relations between individuals and the groups they claim to represent. “Good” and “bad” sexual behavior is not given, natural, or obvious; these ...
... cultural assertions about sex and morality while providing evidence of competitive power relations between individuals and the groups they claim to represent. “Good” and “bad” sexual behavior is not given, natural, or obvious; these ...
Page 6
... cultural distance between the people who told the stories and the people about whom they were told.”32 In other words, accusations of murder and anthropophagy against Chris- tians were false, historically speaking, but their message was ...
... cultural distance between the people who told the stories and the people about whom they were told.”32 In other words, accusations of murder and anthropophagy against Chris- tians were false, historically speaking, but their message was ...
Page 10
... cultural mark- ers that were performed and enacted and , as such , subject to change.52 Moreover , " Jew " and " Judean " were not set identifiers , labels with a stable content upon which everyone agreed ; like the other labels under ...
... cultural mark- ers that were performed and enacted and , as such , subject to change.52 Moreover , " Jew " and " Judean " were not set identifiers , labels with a stable content upon which everyone agreed ; like the other labels under ...
Page 12
... cultural signs and symbols already in place.”72 As we shall see, the followers of Jesus appropriated a vituperative vocabulary they shared with their neighbors in such a way that moral categories were often simply rearticulated, but to ...
... cultural signs and symbols already in place.”72 As we shall see, the followers of Jesus appropriated a vituperative vocabulary they shared with their neighbors in such a way that moral categories were often simply rearticulated, but to ...
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Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity Jennifer Wright Knust Limited preview - 2006 |
Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity Jennifer Wright Knust No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
According accused adultery Aeschines ancient angels Antony apostles argues argument Athenagoras Augustus Bauckham behavior biblical Caligula Cambridge Castelli charges Christ Christian authors church Cicero claims Commentary Corinthians corrupt defile demons Demosthenes depravity desire Dial discourse discussion Early Christian elite emperor empire Enoch enslaved Epistle Epistle of Jude example faith false Christians false prophets false teachers father female flesh followers fornication Fortress Press gender genos gentiles Gnostic God’s Greek Haer heresies Heresiology heretics Herm Homosexuality honor immorality intercourse invective Iren Irenaeus Isocrates Israel Jewish Jews Jude Judean Justin 1 Apol Justin Martyr letter licentiousness lust male Marcus marriage moral Musonius Rufus offered one’s opponents passions Paul Paul’s Peter Philo philosophers Plut Plutarch polemic porneia prostitutes punishment rhetorical Roman Rome rulers self-control self-mastery sexual slander Shepherd of Hermas Simon slavery slaves status Suetonius suggests Tatian Tertullian Testament tradition translation vice virgins virtue wicked woman women