Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- List of Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- Part I Contested Contexts
- Part II Contested Figures
- Part III Contested Heritage
- Part IV Contested Cultures
- Part V Contested Beliefs
- Part VI Contested Bodies
- 24 Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality
- 25 Christian Slavery in Theology and Practice
- 26 Wealth, Almsgiving, and Poverty
- 27 Power, Authority, the Living, and the Dead
- Ancient Sources
- Modern Authors
- References
24 - Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality
The Construct of Self-Control in Early Christianity
from Part VI - Contested Bodies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2023
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- List of Contributors
- Editors’ Preface
- Part I Contested Contexts
- Part II Contested Figures
- Part III Contested Heritage
- Part IV Contested Cultures
- Part V Contested Beliefs
- Part VI Contested Bodies
- 24 Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexuality
- 25 Christian Slavery in Theology and Practice
- 26 Wealth, Almsgiving, and Poverty
- 27 Power, Authority, the Living, and the Dead
- Ancient Sources
- Modern Authors
- References
Summary
A central premise of this chapter is that masculinity, femininity, and sexuality are socially constructed. Across history, cultures have arrived at many different understandings of what it means to be a man or a woman, and many ways to order and direct sexual desire. Instead of assuming that attributes of masculinity or femininity are enduring, then, the historian should articulate how the ancients thought about these topics, even when their approaches differed from our own.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity , pp. 561 - 585Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Select Bibliography
The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James, 10 vols. (1885–7; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994).Google Scholar
Arnobius, . The Seven Books of Arnobius Adversus gentes. Translated by Hamilton Bryce, Archibald and Campbell, Hugh (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1871).Google Scholar
Berg, Ria. “Wearing wealth: Mundus muliebris and ornatus as status markers for women in imperial Rome.” Pages 15–73 in Women, Wealth and Power in the Roman Empire. Edited by Setälä, Päivi, Berg, Ria, Hälikkä, Riikka, Keltanen, Minerva, Pölönen, Janne, and Vuolanto, Ville (Rome: Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae, 2002).Google Scholar
Bremen, Riet van. The Limits of Participation: Women and Civic Life in the Greek East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben, 1996).Google Scholar
Brooten, Bernadette J. Love between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Carothers, Bobbi J. and Reis, Harry T.. “Men and women are from Earth: Examining the latent structure of gender,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 104.2 (2013), 385–407.Google Scholar
Connell, Raewyn. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
Conway, Colleen M. Behold the Man: Jesus and Greco-Roman Masculinity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, Colleen M. “Masculinity studies.” Pages 77–93 in New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality. Edited by Dunning, Benjamin H. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Cyprian, . Treatises. Translated by Deferrari, Roy J., Keenan, Angela Elizabeth, Hannan Mahoney, Mary, and Conway, George Edward. Edited by Deferrari, Roy J. (FC 36; Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958).Google Scholar
Diodorus Siculus, . Library of History, vol. 1, Books 1–2.34. Translated by Oldfather, C. H. (LCL 279; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933).Google Scholar
Dunning, Benjamin H. “Same-sex relations.” Pages 573–91 in New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality. Edited by Dunning, Benjamin H. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Evans Grubbs, Judith. Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood (London: Routledge, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellius, . Attic Nights, vol. 1, Books 1–5. Translated by Rolfe, J. C. (LCL 195; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927).Google Scholar
Hallett, Judith P. “Female homoeroticism and the denial of Roman reality in Latin literature.” Pages 255–73 in Roman Sexualities. Edited by Hallett, Judith P. and Skinner, Marilyn B. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Hallett, Judith P., and Skinner, Marilyn B. (eds.) Roman Sexualities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Heffernan, Thomas J. (ed. and trans.) The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).Google Scholar
Hemelrijk, Emily A. Hidden Lives, Public Personae: Women and Civic Life in the Roman West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Hylen, Susan E. Women in the New Testament World (Essentials of Biblical Studies; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Knust, Jennifer Wright. Abandoned to Lust (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Lipsett, B. Diane. “Celibacy and virginity.” Pages 557–72 in New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality. Edited by Dunning, Benjamin H. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Lucretius, . On the Nature of Things. Translated by Rouse, W. H. D.. Revised by Smith, Martin F. (LCL 181; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1924).Google Scholar
Madigan, Kevin, and Osiek, Carolyn. Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).Google Scholar
Martial, . Epigrams, vol. 1, Spectacles, Books 1–5. Edited and translated by Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (LCL 94; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
Martin, Dale B. Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006).Google Scholar
McDonnell, Myles. Roman Manliness: Virtus and the Roman Republic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).Google Scholar
Papandrea, James (trans.) Novatian: On the Trinity, Letters to Cyprian of Carthage, Ethical Treatises. Translation with Introduction (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015).Google Scholar
Parker, Holt N. “The teratogenic grid.” Pages 47–65 in Roman Sexualities. Edited by Hallett, Judith P. and Skinner, Marilyn B. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).Google Scholar
Pearson, Birger A. (trans.) “The Teachings of Silvanus.” Pages 499–522 in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures. Edited by Meyer, Marvin (New York: HarperOne, 2007).Google Scholar
Penner, Todd, and Vander Stichele, Caroline. “Gendering violence: Patterns of power and constructs of masculinity.” Pages 193–209 in A Feminist Companion to the Acts of the Apostles. Edited by Levine, Amy-Jill with Blickenstaff, Marianne (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 2004).Google Scholar
Penner, Todd, and Vander Stichele, Caroline (eds.) Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Philo, . Questions on Genesis. Translated by Marcus, Ralph (LCL 380; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953).Google Scholar
Saller, Richard P. “Household and gender.” Pages 87–112 in The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World. Edited by Scheidel, Walter, Morris, Ian, and Saller, Richard (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Seneca the Elder, . Declamations, vol. 1, Controversiae, Books 1–6. Translated by Winterbottom, Michael (LCL 463; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).Google Scholar
Seneca the Younger, . Epistles, vol. 3, Epistles 93–124. Translated by Gummere, Richard M. (LCL 77; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925).Google Scholar
Seneca the Younger, . Moral Essays, vol. 1. Translated by Basore, John. W. (LCL 214; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928).Google Scholar
Skinner, Marilyn B. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005).Google Scholar
Treggiari, Susan. Roman Marriage: Iusti coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valerius Maximus, . Memorable Doings and Sayings, vol. 1, Books 1–5. Edited and translated by Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (LCL 492; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000).Google Scholar
Williams, Craig A. Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Wilson, Brittany E. Unmanly Men: Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke-Acts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).Google Scholar