Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by John Boswell

This piece of research was funded by Capacity Builders and commissioned by MENTER, as the lead body of the regional VCS Equalities Group (VEG), in consultation with the East of England Faiths Council (EEFC) and Julie Cartwright-Finch to review the current body of knowledge in relation to faiths and equalities and to set this within the context of some of the local experiences of people of faith in the Eastern region.

Elegant and thought-provoking, this collection provides a fitting twenty-fifth anniversary tribute to the incalculable influence of Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality and its author. Also included are discussions of Boswell's career, including his influence among gay and lesbian Christians and his role in academic debates between essentialists and social constructionists. The essays in this magnificent volume examine a variety of aspects of Boswell's interpretation of events in the development of sexuality from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages, including a Roman emperor's love letters to another man suspicions of sodomy among medieval monks, knights, and crusaders and the gender-bending visions of Christian saints and mystics. The Boswell Thesis brings together fifteen leading scholars at the intersection of religious and sexuality studies to comment on this book's immense impact, the endless debates it generated, and the many contributions it has made to our culture. Twenty-five years later, the aftershocks still reverberate. Arguing that neither the Bible nor the Christian tradition was nearly as hostile to homoeroticism as was generally thought, its initial publication sent shock waves through university classrooms, gay communities, and religious congregations. Few books have had the social, cultural, and scholarly impact of John Boswell's Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality.

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality by John Boswell