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. |
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Page 3
... suggest that it is the white man who is incapable of the very civili- zation he enjoins on everyone else. Seen in this light, a joke is hardly “just a joke”: it is a potent weapon capable of voicing the shared disdain of the dominated ...
... suggest that it is the white man who is incapable of the very civili- zation he enjoins on everyone else. Seen in this light, a joke is hardly “just a joke”: it is a potent weapon capable of voicing the shared disdain of the dominated ...
Page 5
... suggesting that Aeschines ' mother engaged in indiscriminate intercourse in a public latrine ; Aeschines ( allegedly ) imitated her example by involving himself in suspect religious rituals , wearing exotic apparel , and associating ...
... suggesting that Aeschines ' mother engaged in indiscriminate intercourse in a public latrine ; Aeschines ( allegedly ) imitated her example by involving himself in suspect religious rituals , wearing exotic apparel , and associating ...
Page 9
... suggest.50 Did each author understand the label Christian in the same way? Would each author draw the same boundaries around the group he sought to identify? Clearly the answer is no. The overwhelming impression left by reading early ...
... suggest.50 Did each author understand the label Christian in the same way? Would each author draw the same boundaries around the group he sought to identify? Clearly the answer is no. The overwhelming impression left by reading early ...
Page 27
... suggest- ing that to be a slave or a foreigner necessarily implies that one is ignoble , incapable of true wisdom , and immoral , or simply exempt from morality altogether . The social - discursive production of “ citizen " versus ...
... suggest- ing that to be a slave or a foreigner necessarily implies that one is ignoble , incapable of true wisdom , and immoral , or simply exempt from morality altogether . The social - discursive production of “ citizen " versus ...
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Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity Jennifer Wright Knust Limited preview - 2006 |
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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