The Body and Society

Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity

Peter Brown (Princeton University)

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English

Columbia University Press
03 July 2008

Religion & beliefs; The Early Church; Christian social thought & activity; Sociology: sexual relations

First published in 1988, Peter Brown's The Body and Society was a groundbreaking study of the marriage and sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Brown focuses on the practice of permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and lifelong virginity-in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. and traces early Christians' preoccupations with sexuality and the body in the work of the period's great writers.

The Body and Society questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped relationships between men and women, Roman aristocracy and slaves, and the married and the celibate. Brown discusses Tertullian, Valentinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, the Desert Fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, among others, and considers asceticism and society in the Eastern Empire, martyrdom and prophecy, gnostic spiritual guidance, promiscuity among the men and women of the church, monks and marriage in Egypt, the ascetic life of women in fourth-century Jerusalem, and the body and society in the early Middle Ages. In his new introduction, Brown reflects on his work's reception in the scholarly community.

By: Peter Brown (Princeton University)
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 20th anniversary ed
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 737g
ISBN: 9780231144070
ISBN 10: 0231144075
Pages: 568
Publication Date: 03 July 2008
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Peter Brown, formerly professor of classics and history at the University of California, Berkeley, is the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History at Princeton University and the most prominent scholar of late antiquity (between 250 and 800 A.D.). He is the author of a dozen books, including Augustine of Hippo, Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World, The Rise of Western Christendom, and Poverty and Leadership in the Late Roman Empire.

Reviews for The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity

""The reader of Peter Brown's work is always uncertain which to admire most, the grace and clarity, the scope and erudition, or the ability to bring diverse and complex units into a meaningful whole. These merits are all fully on display in The Body and Society."" -- New York Times Book Review ""Peter Brown's book is a great achievement. It will long be read, its insights studied and discussed, and its prose admired and enjoyed... His work is a tour de force, showing a mastery of text and subject through six centuries of history."" -- W. H. C. Frend, New York Review of Books ""A profound exploration of the meaning of embodiment, celibacy, and chastity for early Christians."" -- Christianity Today