Sodomy: A History of a Christian Biblical Myth

by Carden,Michael

• ISBN13: 9781904768296
• ISBN10: 1904768296
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

A study of the reception of Genesis 19, Sodom and Gomorrah, together with the parallel story in Judges 19-21, the outrage at Gibeah, in both Christian and Jewish traditions from antiquity through to the Reformation period. The book sets out to detoxify the dominant homophobic interpretation of Genesis 19, in which Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an archetypal story of divine antipathy towards same sex love and desire, by showing it to be a Christian invention, emerging in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The Jewish traditions concerning Genesis 19, in which Sodom and Gomorrah are associated primarily with inhospitality, xenophobia and abuse of the poor, provide an alternative perspective on the story and one from which Christianity diverged. Together with the reception of the parallel Judges story, this Jewish understanding is employed to highlight the inconsistencies and ethical problems inherent in the dominant Christian homophobic interpretation of Genesis 19. By demonstrating the wide plurality,of readings of this narrative over time, the book further relativizes the Christian homophobic understanding.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Chapter 1 INTRODUCING SODOM/OLOG/Y: A HOMOSEXUAL READING HETERO-TEXTUALITY	1	(13)
1. Motivation: Suicide, Biblical Studies and Social Control	1	(1)
2. Reception, Intertextuality, Readers and Politics	2	(3)
3. Introducing Sodom and Gibeah	5	(4)
4. Assumptions and Objectives	9	(3)
5. In Closing	12	(2)
Chapter 2 READING SODOM AND GIBEAH	14	(28)
1. Disaster, Civil War and Rape	14	(1)
2. A Tale of Two Cities	15	(14)
3. Further Exploring Rape, Homophobia and the Sin of Sodom	29	(10)
4. Conclusion	39	(3)
Chapter 3 A SHARED HERITAGE - SODOM AND GIBEAH IN TEMPLE TIMES	42	(37)
1. A Prior World of Temples and Texts	42	(1)
2. Scriptural Reflections on Sodom and Gibeah	43	(18)
3. Philosophy, History and Commentary	61	(15)
4. Conclusion	76	(3)
Chapter 4 BUT THE MEN OF SODOM WERE WORSE THAN THE MEN OF GIBEAH FOR THE MEN OF GIBEAH ONLY WANTED SEX: SODOM THE CRUEL, GIBEAH AND RABBINIC JUDAISM	79	(37)
1. Of Deltas and Backwaters	79	(2)
2. In Those Days When There Was No King in Israel	81	(5)
3. The Men of Sodom Have No Portion in the World to Come	86	(27)
4. Conclusion	113	(3)
Chapter 5 TOWARDS SODOMY: SODOM AND GIBEAH IN THE CHRISTIAN ECUMEN	116	(48)
1. Rehearsing Sodomy	116	(1)
2. The Evil City, Strange House Guests, Spiritual Models	116	(7)
3. Sodom the Sexual City, Developing Sodomy	123	(5)
4. From Inhospitality to Homoeroticism	128	(26)
5. And Gibeah?	154	(6)
6. Conclusion	160	(4)
Chapter 6 THE SIN THAT ARROGANTLY PROCLAIMS ITSELF: INVENTING SODOMY IN MEDIEVAL CHRISTENDOM	164	(30)
1. A Homophobic Project	164	(1)
2. A Textual Matrix - Penitentials and Commentaries	165	(9)
3. Peter Damian and the Invention of Sodomy	174	(6)
4. Peter Cantor and the Sodomitic Vice	180	(3)
5. Thomas Aquinas	183	(2)
6. Nicholas De Lyra	185	(7)
7. Conclusion	192	(2)
Chapter 7 CONCLUSION: DETOXIFYING SODOM AND GOMORRAH	194	(5)
Bibliography	199	(19)
Index of References	218	(6)
Index of Authors	224