The Body & Society: Men, Women & Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity

by Peter Brown

First published in 1988, Peter Brown's The Body & Society was a groundbreaking study of the marriage & sexual practices of early Christians in the ancient Mediterranean & the Near East. To mark the 20th anniversary of its publication, Columbia will make available an edition that features a new introduction by the author. Brown will discuss the reception of the book since its debut in the scholarly community as well as the influential thought and literature it has produced.

The Body and Society focuses on the practice of permanent sexual renunciation-continence, celibacy, and life-long virginity-in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries AD. Brown follows early Christians' strange, disturbing preoccupations with sexuality and the body in great detail, tracing the reflection and controversy these notions generated among the period's great writers. Brown questions how theological views on sexuality and the human body both mirrored and shaped not only the uneven relationships between men and women, but also the complex interactions between the Roman aristocracy and their slaves, and between the married and the celibate. Figures discussed include Tertullian, Valentinus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Constantine, the Desert Fathers, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, among others. Topics covered include 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-in order to ground the subject in a historical context-the body and society in the early Middle Ages.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Philosophy, Theology, Sexuality

504 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1988

About the author

Peter Robert Lamont Brown FBA is an Irish historian. He is the Rollins Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. Brown is credited with having brought coherence to the field of Late Antiquity, and is often regarded as the inventor of said field. His work has concerned, in particular, the religious culture of the later Roman Empire and early medieval Europe, and the relation between religion and society.

Reviews

[Samuel Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago and just realized that I never reviewed it. Brown is everything one could desire from a scholar of Mediterranean culture in the several centuries after Christ. He founded the field of Late Antique studies as such, and this book is one of the key contributions he made earlier in his career. (He's still writing magnificent books at a staggering rate from his retirement.) It's probably one of the most insightful, interesting, and illuminating texts I've read on early Christianity. It changed the way I think about gender and reproduction in the early Christian church. If you're trying to understand ancient ideas about the meaning of sexual difference and sexual expression, this book is absolutely necessary. Time spent in the presence of a wise and immensely learned scholar is a rare treasure; this book represents such an opportunity.

[Matthew Loftus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I have ever enjoyed the prose in an academic book this much before. Brown tells a series of stories about a complex and fascinating subject: asceticism, continence, and virginity in the early Church and beyond. I loved it

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Brown's The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity is rightly regarded as a classic study of gender, the body, celibacy, marriage, and sexuality. On full display are Brown's lively prose and prodigious knowledge of the church fathers and their thought. Readers are nearly overwhelmed with Brown's seemingly effortless ability to move from the thought of Origen to Gregory of Nyssa to Jerome to Augustine. It certainly complicates much of what conservative Christians take to be obvious, "biblical" mores and family values (how many pastors advocate sexual renunciation between husband and wife!). I found the timeline at the beginning of the book incredibly helpful; to someone as not thoroughly-versed in ancient Christianity, I often think of the church fathers operating in isolation, when in reality, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus were contemporaries and Gregory Nazianzen and Ambrose of Milan were writing and teaching at the same time.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most striking aspects of Peter Brown’s The Body and Society is the sheer diversity of viewpoints on sex and sexual renunciation. Augustine’s viewpoints differed greatly from his own contemporaries such as John Cassian and Jerome. The Desert fathers differed from Origen and so on. Some believed any sex was a sin, while others thought having sex in marriage was perfectly acceptable. Peter Brown’s book reveals some of the complicated discussions and diverse opinions in the ancient, mostly Christian world.

The book starts off with the teachings of the apostle Paul and moves from there to the time of the Desert Fathers. I found Peter Brown’s handling of the biblical material underwhelming, and he too readily accepted historical-critical dating and authorship assumptions that I don’t share. As he moves through the rest of the historical people and times I thought he handled them better, but that may be due to my ignorance of the time period and scholarship around the figures. Someone other than me will need to judge him on the accuracy of his history. I ended up taking a mostly accepting posture to his historical judgment as I read this book.

The picture Peter Brown gives us of sexuality, sexual renunciation, and gender in the first four centuries of the Christian era is a view far from our own. Both the pagan and Christian assumptions and conclusions are not ones shared by many in today’s society. The most prominent example comes from the subtitle of the book: sexual renunciation within marriage. Both ancient Romans and early Christians held it up as virtuous, though for different reasons, that sex within marriage should be limited if had at all. With the invention of the pill and ready access to contraception and natural family planning techniques, Christian marriages are often encouraged to have more sex, not less. Reading this book put me into a society and world with assumptions around continence and sex far different from my own.

I would not want to go back to the ways of the past. The teachings on marriage, sex, and family life were not developed to the extent that they need to be by our fathers in the faith, especially with regards to understanding the female body and pleasure. I think the early Christian writers did make a mistake when they did not stress the unitive and joyous aspects of sex, something I think we have been able to grasp much better than the past. While sex is connected to procreation, pleasure also comes with it as well, and this is a gift from God. However, I think the past, as depicted by Peter Brown, does contain some valuable resources which we can benefit from.

The most impressive aspect of the past figures, both male and female, is the discipline and submission of the body, including sexual urges. However we may feel about their conclusions about sex and understanding of the body, I have great admiration for the discipline these ancients, both pagan and Christian were able to show. For someone who struggles to fast some food, the disciple in fasting and sexual renunciation is admirable.

The past also emphasizes the value of virginity and singleness in ways I have not seen the Protestant church do well. We do not have to accept all of the conclusions around virginity to see the value Jesus and Paul gives to those who live lives of committed singleness to the Lord. Those of us who are Protestant have much we can learn from the past and the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches on this topic, even if the learning will have to be careful.

In an odd turn of events, the Christian church, at least the conservative branch, has now turned into one of the strongest defenders of marriage and the family. This feels odd, and even contradictory, when compared to the emphases of the early Christians. Many wanted to emphasize the temporality of our life on earth, something virginity pointed to uniquely well. Unlike the pagans, Christians were not to create a name for themselves through procreation. As such, Christians were sometimes hostile (Jerome), but more often apathetic (Gregory of Nyssa exemplified this) to procreation. I do not believe we need to keep the insights of the past separate from our own defense of the family, however. Different times require different emphases, and the good of the natural family does need to be defended in ways it did not back in the earliest church life. But the views of the past can serve as a good corrective to some views of the family and procreation. Families are good, but Christians should not desire to make a name for themselves through their children. Only in God are we allowed to pursue fame and glory, and that glory is one where we “boast only in the cross” as St. Paul says.

An unsurprising, but welcome feature of the book was the inclusion of Christian groups and teachers of questionable orthodoxy, such as Valentinian and the Gnostic teachers. I say this is welcome because it gave me a picture of Christian views I am not usually exposed to, and I think it gave a fuller picture of what leaders were teaching about sexuality and sexual renunciation. It also allowed for more of a contrast to appear between what the texts of scripture and the gnostic texts taught about the body. The orthodox Christian teachers, while still different, are much more recognizable than the unorthodox Christian sects and teachings.

One reason I read this book was to get a glimpse of the lives of men and women in early Christianity. As expected, the men get far more of the page count and discussion. We simply do not have many surviving writing by Christian women to let us know what they were thinking. However, we can piece together bits and pieces here and there. The first thing to note is that women were often assumed to be lesser than men. I believe one of the gnostic texts says that in the new life women would become men. Second is that women were viewed as objects of sexual temptation. The seriousness of this threat varied depending on the writer, with Jerome and some Desert ascetics taking the most negative view of women. This led to a separation of men from women as a way to flee sexual temptation by the men. Third we also see some (though not many) Christians having a high value and expectation on women learning. Origen’s study circles were open to women, Macrina was a great teacher of the scriptures and influential in teaching her younger siblings, and we see in Jerome’s early years a similar attitude to women learning with Melania becoming a great teacher and expositor of the scriptures. Fourth we see women able to access different parts of society than the men could. Fifth, the high elevation on virginity, led to an elevated status for consecrated female virgins. These women were viewed as extra holy and able to intercede in powerful ways.

One last thought for myself. After reading this book, I would like to read more on sex, virginity, sexual renunciation, and marriage by Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine. Gregory of Nyssa seemed to be going along a slightly different path than the rest of the early fathers, and I would like to engage with them in the future.

[Adelais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ретельна книжка про те, як змінювалося ставлення до тіла, тілесних функцій та сексуальності у ранніх християнських течіях, та як власне зречення від сексуальності теж стало важливим для вірян. Лінійності в цьому всьому зовсім не було, і діапазон думок (і практик) був надзвичайно широкий - тільки утримання, тільки в шлюбі, і в шлюбі не треба тощо і ще купа нюансів. Не знаю, чому саме цю книжку переклали в нас, але діло в будь-якому випадку правильне. Але мінус одна зірочка якраз за переклад - я ніби привчена читати отців церкви (у перекладі англійською, соррі) без відриву від реальності, але тут навіть прості речення місцями доводилося перечитувати тричі, щоб зрозуміти, хто на кому стояв, і далеко не раз на розділ, ще трохи - і гугл-транслейт. Знову перекласти і перевидати, так бачу.

[Taylor Swift Scholar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating. I regaled my spouse and my friends with facts about early Christian sex (or the lack thereof). I did not know about the Encratic movement or that one way of protesting the current world order is by attempting not to continue it by not having kids. And then everyone else has to respond to that by being like no it’s fine that young people have sex here are all the rules — celibacy is for our old priests. And then it just keeps getting weirder and weirder as the centuries go by until Mary’s hymen stands for the gates of heaven. Gross! This was definitely written as an academic text, but I really appreciated Brown’s moments of humor such as when he contemplated the penis responding to human will. Also good for the young ladies back in the day who got to declare themselves perpetual “virgins” and then form intense friendships with one another including sometimes becoming “roommates.”

[Sarah McCoy Isaacs · Rating 4 out of 5]

One reader commented that Brown's work here is 'biased and sloppy,' and while that may be their take, I respectfully disagree.
For those who don't know who Brown is, he is usually known as the imminent living expert on all things Augustine. Nice work if you can get it; while that's a neat thing to put on a business card, very few people can make a living tossing such a title around. Brown is no slouch, and I think he is a fair and judicious expert on Augustine. Especially being a female, I must posit that while Augustine is rightly known as one of the most important thinkers Christianity has ever known, he brought some of his own struggles to his work which have had lasting implications. This is also true of Jerome, of Tertullian, and of a handful of the earliest Church Fathers, from 200-400 AD, which is the time that Brown here gives treatment to.

Because of the Platononism that was 'in the air' with Manichees and Gnostic dualism, the things which our Church Fathers said have had some lasting implications which any minister or learned laity would do well to explore. I think Brown's work is an excellent work in which to do just that.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read long ago for an undergraduate course on the history of the body. Excellent.

[Claire Scorzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Brown é um historiador cuja especialidade é a Antiguidade Tardia - o período dos primeiros séculos após o nascimento de Jesus Cristo, quando surge a fé cristã coexistindo num mundo dominado pelo Império Romano, que porém já começa a viver seu ocaso. Como historiador que domina seu ofício, ele é admirável; todo o seu texto acha-se fartamente documentado e as páginas da obra cobrem-se de notas de rodapé (que aparecem no final do volume, ao menos na edição brasileira). Apenas, como especialista que examina a prática cristã nos seus inícios, ele deve ser lido com alguma reserva - não se trata de repúdio, mas: alguma reserva - já que, não sendo cristão, certas conclusões suas dependem de uma postura dele diante dos textos bíblicos - os do Novo Testamento - claramente não conservadoras, negando a autoria de epístolas do apóstolo Paulo, por exemplo. Não são os textos o problema aqui; somente, determinadas conclusões do autor a partir desses textos.

Brown vai historiar como a prática do ascetismo e consequentemente também do celibato foi se formando na Igreja primitiva, a partir de seus teólogos e autoridades mais conceituados. Textos dos pais apologistas, e muito especialmente os grandes pensadores que formarão o período da Patrística são citados, transcritos, comentados, não faltando recriação do pano de fundo desses textos - de Justino o mártir, Basílio de Cesaréia, Gregório de Nissa, João Crisóstomo, Jerônimo, João Cassiano, e, é claro - Agostinho de Hipona.

Houve mais de uma posição ou postura a respeito do celibato. De uma visão radical dos padres do Deserto, passando pelos representantes de seitas como os encratitas, além dos exageros violentos de um Jerônimo, até algum equilíbrio - um equilíbrio, talvez, precário - com João Crisóstomo e Agostinho, já que, apesar de considerarem o celibato um estado "melhor" , ambos apoiavam e respeitavam o casamento, dando conselhos a casais cristãos.

O livro também historia as distinções sobre o tema da renúncia sexual e valorização da virgindade dentro das tradições das igrejas do Ocidente e do Oriente; havia diferenças, especialmente onde a igreja era formada por uma maioria casada. É no alvorecer da Idade Média, por volta dos anos de 600, que o ideal do clérigo solteiro irá tornar-se regra, e a tolerância com padres casados vindo a reduzir-se quase por completo.

Um dos pontos mais apaixonantes - para mim - da obra é o levantamento feito pelo autor da vida das mulheres na igreja primitiva, e em como, mesmo através dos exageros da renúncia sexual, parece ter havido algum benefício: considerando-se ambos, homem e mulher cristãos continentes, quase assexuados, foi como se conseguissem aí desenvolver profundas amizades espirituais entre eles - Jerônimo e Paula, Crisóstomo e Olímpia, Rufino e Melânia seriam os exemplos mais famosos, que passaram à história.

Um livro instigante, desafiador, capaz de empolgar o leitor interessado na formação do pensamento desses primeiros cristãos e cristãs.

[Dr. Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful prose but this is not my area therefore I did not find the subject that interesting. If it had been about Late Antique Judaism or Rabbinic history I would have been all over it. So honestly I gave it three stars because the writing was really good but the subject just did not appeal.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started out being highly skeptical but now celibacy and gender and early Christianity are all I can think about!

[Suz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me preface my review of The Body and Society with a quote that may cause indignation, but constantly repeated in my mind as I devoured its contents:

"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."

And also, keep it in your mind as you read this analysis.

Material Conditions of the Late Roman Empire

To put it simply - things were bleak.

- The largest class was by far the rural peasantry, which accounted for 80+% of the Empire's population.
- Out of the total population of the Empire, 10-20% were slaves, with higher rates in the cities.
- The average life expectancy was around 25-35 years because of the high infant mortality rate, with 30-50% of children dying before adolescence.
- The average adult could usually make it to their 40s-50s, presuming they lived to their 20s.
- Pregnancy was highly dangerous for Roman women, with a 1/50 mortality rate, that increased with each subsequent pregnancy; a Roman woman needed to have at least 5 children just to sustain the population of the Empire.
- Women had to deliver children without proper medical care or pain relievers - the child had such a high chance of dying that one can imagine the emotional detachment parents had to have, so that they could continue having more children while expecting around half of them to die young.
- Plagues could last for decades, in the case of the Antonine Plague of 165-180, which killed 10-25% of the Empire's population.
- Not to mention: famine, natural disasters, brutal war, barbarian invasions, violent crime, etc.

Be cognizant that these conditions worsened as the Empire declined. This is important because Christianity gained steam in the 3rd century, e.g. during the era of the Crisis of the Third Century.

Demographics of Early Christian Converts

Contrary to popular belief, early Christianity spread among what we would today call the urban petty-bourgeoisie and artisan class. Many of its proponents were also well-off women, who were able to host congregations and spread paper transcriptions of the Gospels. While there were slaves and the poor, and the occasional elite that converted, this represented the bulk of Gentile converts. The Roman elite did not seriously begin converting until the late 4th century (following the conversion of Emperor Constantine). However, these conversions still happened mostly in urban areas, leaving the rural populations slower to convert - many remained pagan for the next 200-300 years. "Pagan" is derived from a slur by urban Roman Christians for rural Roman polytheists.

We therefore need to look at the Christianity described in The Body and Society as:

- Urban
- Dominated by the urban petty-bourgeoisie before substantial conversion of the elite landowning class
- Marginal until the crisis of the Empire and deteriorating material conditions
- Shaped by a background of extreme instability, brutality, and violence

Superstructural Considerations

- The dominant stream of philosophy was the descendants of Socratic philosophy, most notably: Neoplatonism
- Neoplatonism posits that material reality was the "lowest reality" and the soul of an individual was destined to return to the divine One. Matter wasn't inherently evil, but it was lacking in character
- To achieve union with the One, an aspirant was encouraged to withdraw sensory pleasures and pursue actions of renunciation

Neoplatonism has some similar to classical Advaita Vedanta, before its later developments via the synthesis of Vivekananda. I will criticize it in the same way Ramakrishna criticized classical Advaita Vedanta: in its world-denying position. Because the material world, created by the Demiurge, is "not real" in the ultimate sense, then it was "lesser than". I will refrain from going into philosophical arguments here, but we need to note its influence on Christianity, such as on the thought of Origen, Augustine, the Gnostics, and so on. It would be a grave error to underestimate the impact world-denying and life-denying philosophies had on early Christian belief systems.


Early Christian Views on Sexuality: A Very Brief Summary

Am I trying to summarize the entire book's contents in one section? Kind of? In all honesty, it is the social impact I was more interested in, rather than rehashings of the same obsessive guilt with sexuality and desire.

- Overall, unsurprisingly: attitudes were negative, with differences on degrees of negativity
- There were some proponents (like Jerome) who were staunchly against sexual activity of any kind, and Augustine, who viewed sexuality as a necessity at best, and sexual desire a corrupted good (a progressive position!)
- Anti-natalist groups like the Encratites and the Manicheans who believed procreation was demonic did exist, but vanished shortly after the 4th century, with Catholicism becoming mainstream in the Roman Empire. The state, having no desire to entertain these "heresies" (or rather, the dangers they posed to its continuation), crushed them mercilessly.
- Marriage, taught by Paul the Apostle, was seen as a necessary evil for less talented followers of Christ; truly spiritual persons were committed to a lifetime of strict virginity
- Theological views also varied greatly, but essentially, sexual desire was never treated without suspicion. It wasn't until Augustine that the idea sexual desire may have been an intrinsic part of human existence even entered the discussion in Christian discourse.

This way be an oversimplification, but what the early Christians seemed to have done is take the metaphysics of Neoplatonism and plugged in the fallout of the Original Sin into the mix. Children were believed to be conceived through blood (from both the mother and father, as semen was believed to produced from blood) from the animalistic act of sexual intercourse - which was seen as a corruption of the pure state of Jesus' own sexless conception in Mary. This, the early Christians believed, was "pure" conception; the act of earthly procreation was simply a mockery, a desperate attempt to flee from death. The act of physical sex was also comparable to "beasts", which humans helplessly succumb to because of fleshly desire, only to produce children who will also inevitably die.

Notably, when early Christians got married, they were told to "be fruitful and multiply", which was what God told Adam and Eve upon their expulsion from Eden. Ideally, they were to stop having sex once they had enough children, and also, only engage in sex for procreation. At the bare minimum, they were expected to abstain during fasts and feast days, and not commit adultery or divorce. If this sounds like a consolation prize, that's because it was. For many Church Fathers like Julian, marriage was simply a way for the incontinent to not commit adultery and "turn to the brothel".

As Christianity became more and more entwined with the social fabric of the empire, this obviously had to be revised. Recall that the average Roman woman had to have 5 children to sustain the empire's population; as the empire collapsed, so too, did other problems necessitate more attention from the church: bandits, violent crime, streams of refugees, slavers, and the like. Augustine, considered progressive for his time, taught instead that sexual desire was not intrinsically disordered, but became so through corruption of the will. He contended that if Adam and Eve had not fallen to the Original Sin, they still would have had children, but not in the uncontrollable, manic way that their corrupted descendants did. Therefore, married couples had to approach the marriage bed with a sense of grief, because they were replaying the Fall every time they embraced each other.

This grief, however, it should be noted - was not exclusive to Christianity. Pagan Romans and Greeks, also denizens of a world plagued with death, also expressed the same ideas. What was different though, was that in pagan and Jewish teachings, sexual union could - if practiced with control - lead to deepened intimacy and bonding between married couples. This idea that there could be genuine joy within the sexual act was notably absent from all early Christian sermonizing.

The Cult of Virginity: Repression

It should be of no surprise that in the face of crumbling material conditions and world-denying theology, life-denial followed closely, and became a cult of its own. I say cult very deliberately here. While the Catholic Church still upholds the dogma that the virgin state is "superior" to the married state, it has changed its tune on vocational discernment; celibacy is now seen as an optional path rather than something that should be pursued as an ideal. The early Church was very different. Virgins were considered to be extraordinarily holy individuals, capable of miraculous intercessions and living witnesses to the coming eschaton. Given the degraded status of marriage, many individuals, men and women, were determined to remain virgins - often at disturbing costs. We have to keep in mind that this meant complete celibacy - not just from sex, but sexual desire and pleasure, which were considered demonic temptations.

This obsession with sexual purity and virginity, among those who did not have the vocation for it, manifested as repression. A few chilling examples:

- Male monks in the Egyptian desert, given to the monasteries as children, had to endure puberty completely alienated from their physical forms: they were to be completely clothed at all times, forbidden from looking at their own bodies, forbidden from looking at others' bodies, forbidden from touch - they had to remain 1 cubit away from even their brethren owing to fear of homosexuality, and of course, they weren't allowed to be in the presence of women.
- Euphrasia, a nun born in 380, joined a convent at the age of 7. When she was 12, she started experiencing sexual dreams, called the "temptations of the devil" - she was told to sleep on stones and ashes, perform heavy labor, and endure a starvation diet to "win her crown". She died at the young age of 30.
- Accounts of a hermit: he met a nun while out of his monastery, and sexually assaulted her due to a sudden flare of lust; she slapped him before he went further than trying to take off her clothes, and by the time she disappeared, he had ejaculated in his robes (this was used as a precaution against associating with women, rather than to refrain from sexual assault, but I digress)
- Jerome, a Church Father, recorded down his explicit sexual fantasies while living the life of a ascetic, as well as doubts to why he wasn't living a regular householder life - all of these were attributed to demonic activity, which he believed he could tame through extreme fasting and deprivation.

While the abusive nature of this sort of "asceticism" is indisputable, we also have to keep in mind people living in those times had primitive scientific knowledge, and even more limited understandings on psychology and physiology. For example, they had no idea that the occasional nocturnal emission is a natural biological response, so it was labeled "demonic" - and anything "demonic" had to be dealt with by an iron hand. Mental illness resulting in these practices, presumably, would also be blamed on demons.

The Cult of Virginity: Fetishization

We now have to look at the status of these renunciates held in society - for the sake of brevity, we'll stick to women who became "Virgins of the Church", e.g. consecrated virgins.

To truly understand the obsession with virginity, we have to understand the material conditions which produced it. The obsession with continence, virginity, purity of the body, and protection of the holy virgins from "the world" coincided with the death throes of the western Roman empire. The desire to preserve something holy, "unsullied" by the murk of mundanity, was one of the driving forces of this obsession. We can study how the cult of the Virgin Mary began as an illustration - not through her status as the mother of Jesus, but rather because she was "untouched" by the world. Mary's "origin story" at this time was that she grew up secluded in the Temple, was completely chaste in body and demeanour, and innocent to worldly matters. She reads more as a holy object than a human being, something set apart and reserved.

Case in point, a reading of Pseudo-Athanasius' Discourse on Salvation to a Virgin says: "...neither shall you see yourself with your body uncovered. For from whatever time you agree to practice abstinence for God, your body is sanctified and a temple of God." and "It is not good for you to go out, except in great necessity. Love silence as much as you are able." The treatise also recommends not bathing, presumably to combat vanity — a practice which unfortunately, could not have been good for hygiene.

This cloistered model was what the consecrated virgins of the early church tried to emulate. They were expected to remain in the households of their parents, sanctifying the inner chambers, and only emerge to go to church services. They were no longer looked to as women, but "most holy persons" and in all respects, lost their personhood - their only defining trait was their virginity, the state of their bodies. While married women provided their fertile bodies in the service of sex and childbirth, consecrated virgins provided their sterile bodies to the preservation of natural order. It was believed that as long as a virgin remained in a household, then the household would be spared from disaster; therefore, it was in the interest of the entire community to make sure the woman did not stray from her vows. Graves of the consecrated were also used as protection for entire cities for the same purpose. The prayers of the consecrated were thought to cause the flooding of the Nile.

While there were consecrated virgins who had more freedom of mobility, they were almost exclusively wealthy heiresses, at least the ones we know of. These women fostered a great number of "intellectual friendships" with male clerics, provided them financial support, and donated their estates to the Church upon their passing. There were also fringe groups of women who abandoned urban living to retreat to a "desert" in the style of the Desert Fathers, but again, these were negligible in number compared to their sisters.

Why were there such large numbers of consecrated virgins in the early church? Rather than believe myths, we need to look at the sobering material facts: to marry a daughter off, families needed to provide a dowry, which many could not afford. It was also considered a sin for Christians to expose female babies, which was a commonality back in Antiquity. So, the solution was to simply give these unwanted girls to the church as a "tithe". Furthermore, because of the holiness of these women, other families willingly took them in if they were at risk of destitution.

While remaining a consecrated virgin prevented the woman in question from having to experience the pains of Roman marriage and childbirth, it would be extremely reductionist to frame this state as some kind of "empowerment". These women were undoubtedly still objectified, reduced to their bodies, and subject to patriarchal "teachings" by the male leaders of the church. That being said, there were also consecrated virgins who formed convents, usually under a wealthy benefactor, or lived together with their close female friends within a household - which was, undeniably for many, a blessing. Regardless, it seems like these women occupied another corner of the male fantasy, and the exaltations of their purity stood in place for the lust which would have otherwise occupied its place.

Anti-Natalism

Rather than outline the theology of the Encratites and their fellows, it would be more valuable to consider what the rise of these anti-natalist really signified: that is, an attempt to rebel against the terrible material and social conditions of the day. We can, in fact, observe similar strains of thought today among the disillusioned "doomer" youth within the imperial core. These Romans saw the gross inequity of society, a society dominated by the poor and the enslaved. At the top of the pyramid sat the landowning elite and the senatorial class, which treated the proletarian underclass like insects. Death, disease, and poverty was rampant - how far this was from the Eden that the Bible spoke of, let alone Paradise to come. While the Encratites were firmly against intercourse for religious Neoplatonic-influenced reasons, they also believed that to refrain from marriage and children was the only way to deprive the existing world of more bodies to consume. While death could not be prevented, new life could, and be spared the pains of the corrupted world.

Concluding Note

To view the practices of many early Christians in a vacuum would be an idealist error. We can agree that some of it was disturbing and completely alien to the modern audience. However, recalling the material conditions of the late Roman empire, we can also see that the environment which fostered these practices was essentially, an apocalyptic world. The people who tried, with varying degrees of success, to live an "angelic" life, had little to no understanding of science, medicine, history, and psychology. They were however, just as human as the rest of us: and human beings desire to find meaning in pain, chaos, and extreme instability.

That being said, it would be an error of mechanical materialism to also, reduce the faith of the early Christians to an opioid and nothing else. Even in the crumbling empire, Catholics were able to retain hope in a better world - if not in this one, than the next. The ritualistic worship of the old pagan religions, whose primary function was to strengthen the state, had lost its purpose. It was Christianity that kept the social systems of Rome intact in its fall. Even its extreme manifestations, such as the denunciations against sex and procreation, only lasted as long as they was allowed to last, before the institution was subordinated to the needs of the state.

It is undeniable however, that the life-denying and world-denying strains of Christianity still affect its modern permutations. We should take note and study these as best as we can, especially as the empire many of us live in - the imperial core - is also entering into an era of decline and eventual collapse. We also need to challenge the purity fetishism that spread from Christianity as a result of imperialism and colonization, inevitably taking root within other faith traditions.

[Ari's library · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.95 🌟

It was very dense, detailed and informative book and the reader expects no less from Peter Brown. We have here a complete exposé on the subject of sexuality and its practices in and outside of marriage in the early church and the broader roman society in the midst of which the church evolved.

Peter Brown presents the practice of sexual renounciation from abstinence periods to the vows of celibacy of the virgins, monks and priests. To do so, he has to introduce the reader to the newness of this idea in the roman society and how it will then affect the conception that western and eastern societies have of the human body in general. He approaches for exemple the new interest that Christianiy had on the virgin status of both men and women, and the way the doctrine of the sacrality of the body is challenging a conception of sexuality and modesty that used to be entirely founded on social hierarchy. In Antiquity, sexuality was a matter of power and only concerned morality because through its practices the society rigid order was maintained.

To study this vast and broad subject of sexuality and the way christian morality changed the gaze on the body, Peter Brown divides his opus in chronological and geographical parts, each focusing on the eastern and western part of the empire and how the new christian morality was applied and challenged in theses regions with very different cultures and traditions.

If one is interested in the subject, he or she will definitely learn a lot from this book but I have to warn the reader that some parts are quite descriptive and that the roman society was not, as we all know, a very...clean place to say the least. The only issue that I had is that I would have liked more attention to be put on celibacy and virginity. Both were studied but none was the main focus and even if I understood that it is more a study of the body in general, I could not help but be a bit greedy on this matter.

[Neal Spadafora]

This was my second read of this incredible book. Here are a few thoughts which do not even scratch the surface:

Brown’s charts how, by the 4th century, Christian laypeople began to internalize and imitate the sexual ethics of a highly urbanized Christian elite who privileged sexual temperance within marriage or celibacy after marriage. This lay embrace of elite sexual discipline marks not simply a shift in behavior but a consolidation of a deeper ideological bifurcation that Brown calls the “two ways” of Christianity.

A sufficient though incomplete understanding of how these two ways unfolded can be grasped by attending to Brown’s staging of Origen and Clement. On one side, an asceticism, championed by Origen and premised on total and perpetual sexual renunciation and on the other, a tempered, domesticated sexuality preached by Clement and tethered to the sanctified form of marriage and its maintenance of property and inherited goods. This division, formed in the 3rd century and hardened by the 4th, operate less as a historical inevitability than as a structure through which the Church came to stage its relation to the body, to the future, and to power.

It is this very structure that Brown foregrounds through the figures of Clement and Origen—two nodes of theological intensity whose contrast does not simply illuminate opposing ethical ideals but reveals the Church’s libidinal investments in the regulation of masculinity, clerical identity, and femininity.

What is evident is that debates over celibacy were not merely theological debates. On the contrary, as the Church grew, celibacy emerged as a central pivot around which sexual difference, masculinity, and clerical identity were articulated. That is, the question of celibacy in the characters Brown studies is often rooted in practical applications that transform celibacy into a calculated art of self-formation.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Brown's THE BODY AND SOCIETY is a commendable, historical puzzling-out of Early Christian concepts of sexuality, sexual continence, and the role of renunciation/asceticism in the first five centuries of the common era.

While a considerable proportion of Brown's analysis is reserved for his discernment of the Desert Fathers, their contemporaries, and those who followed them, perhaps equally fascinating are the author's tidy and resolute interpretations of the moral indices localized to Asia Minor or Latin Rome or of Syria, Africa, and Gaul. Concepts of sexuality, concepts of body (male or female), and distinguishing the cultural and political reasons for differentiating such human tendencies, varied by region. Brown's work provides a very good, very sharp, critical understanding of how perceptions of body and of sexuality evolved in each of these territories and why.

A distinct line can be drawn from the First/Second Century notion that "sexual desire itself was unproblematic" (30), to later calculations on the role of sexual desire in pushing certain social functions of female domesticity, to yet later integrations of religiosity and spirituality and their assertion that sexual desire represented human intractability, to more modern assessments of sexuality as blameworthy, as an inherent revocation of purity that is wholly "antithetical" to the clear truth and harmony purportedly bestowed upon (or made available to) humankind by God.

There is a line connecting these perspectives, and Brown traces this line. At his disposal are letters, religious tracts, and the arrogant sagacity of governing institutions whose grasp of sexual continence shifted and changed through the centuries, as one comes to regularly expect, to best suit the needs (or reflect the interests) of those officials or patrons who most benefited from constituent instruction of such matters. THE BODY AND SOCIETY, while taking noticeable strides to avoid present-day politics of the human body, does not shy away from documenting the political inclinations of authority structures of the first five centuries, and how these structures wielded their influence.

Brown's discussion of Early Christianity covers a lot of ground, but is thankfully limited to its reflection on the transparency of the human will, harmony by means of retaining cultural balance and/or hierarchy, and subsequent connections to the holy through assorted rituals, traditions, and ideological reflections (symbols) of humankind's relationship with the cosmic. Does material diversity -- of human form -- ever diverge from, or progress toward, "an original common perfection" (163)? Brown cites, rather assiduously, the lives of men such as Tertullian, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Ambrose of Milan, and Augustine of Hippo, in an effort to tease out an answer or two.

The most unique and recurring facet of this analysis is Brown's acknowledgment of humanity's ever-elusive goal to reclaim The Adam Status -- the spiritual journey one undertakes to retrieve the unblemished exclusivity of being the non-animal. In time, this journey is reinterpreted as having less to deal with "the image of the pure" (295) -- a kind of original or native, interior purity -- than it does the more pressing, contemporary disambiguation of material possessiveness and the capacity of the soul to love, or to transform through love, to be closer to spiritual delight.

This debate is chronicled loosely but sufficiently, and thus knits end-to-end an array of unanswerable questions posed by each period's greatest minds, notably: Is the sexual impulse a dutiful echo of the cosmic impulse? And, further: Is physical intimacy (and therefore, pleasure) a natural, or even necessary part of human creation?

Different cultural traditions have responded to the quest to reclaim The Adam Status differently. This is important, because it shows readers that interpretations of canonical Scripture have been routinely massaged over the centuries, not merely to suit the needs of prevailing authorities, but to educate as well: Is the material social structure representative of human interactions that are necessary merely because the conditions for a population to thrive so necessitate its presence?

THE BODY AND SOCIETY is an excellent window into the psycho-social consequences of establishing and revising cultural expectations. Sometimes, ideology obscures culture and custom in favor of universalizing perspective and thought in a way that deliberately minimizes an individual's lived experience. Sometimes, establishing limitations on human desire finesses the fundament of human wisdom in other facets or challenges of life such that external determinants are no longer overwhelming.

There is perhaps not enough analysis in this book concerning the role, function, and influence of women on Early Christianity and its ascetic traditions, this despite Brown's indispensable (single) chapter on the matter. Brown's dismissal of Thecla, for example, is unfortunate, because it immediately precludes any contributing analysis of the power of her character (real or conglomerated) to have influenced centuries of practices concerning virgin (female) martyrs. Similarly, the author's notes on figures such as Macrina (elder sister to Gregory of Nyssa) and Melania the Elder focus far too much on what these figures did with their public lives and less on the individual lines of influence that extended from their legendary patronage.

THE BODY AND SOCIETY, for its extended focus on male rhetorical spaces and patient (and particular) attenuation of body concepts among representative human tendencies capable of blame, refinement, and/or misunderstanding, remains a vital resource in contextualizing the shifting fortunes and functions of sexuality and of sexual continence in the late-antique Roman Empire and its surrounding territories.

[Joel Olsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this more than I initially thought!

It is really interesting to see the evolution of the thought of sexual renunciation in early christianity. Especially considering that priests within two of the biggest christian denominations have to be celibate. Now I have a more understanding how this thought came to be and evolved. It is also interesting to learn more about both pagan views on sexuality aswell as early christian views on sexuality during the Roman Empire. It is also interesting with all those radical sects that tried to emulate angels and keep themselves from sexual relations. Honestly this book has a lot of great and interesting information it discusses in detail some important church father's like Augustine and Origen and their views on sexuality particualry sexual renunciation. Also it talks about gnostics aswell!

I will give it 3,8 stars.

[sam tannehill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. I have loved reading any book by Peter Brown, so far. This book is a very interesting look at not just sexual mores of early Christians, but even more so the idea of how the physical body fit into creation. If you have never read a book about the history of the Christian church, first read a good history book, like "The History of the Christian Church," by Philip Schaff, or "2,000 Years of Christ's Power," Nicholas Needham. Then read this book or a book like it to fill in the details around the broader brush strokes.

I especially liked how this book ended. If you read through this book, the first part may start slowly, but it gets more interesting and then finishes very well.

[Micah Rojo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Browns prose wraps you in like a warm hug. One of the best to do it

It’s so sprawling and he gives each figure their own space to flesh out their particularities and nuances that it can be overwhelming. i found myself asking for more comparisons to neatly appreciate the distinctions within a paragraph rather then between chapters. you get this tho in the augustine chapter which is really incredible. the comparison is between augustine’s conception of the erring will that does not leave us this side of death and the origen strand that is seen in early christianity of a body that can be made sacred through virginity with sexual desires that can be controlled (i may have gotten this wrong).

really interesting to read this alongside foucault’s confessions of the flesh too

[fausto · Rating 5 out of 5]

"El cuerpo y la sociedad" es un libro que tenía pendiente desde hace algunos años, se trata de un muy riguroso análisis de la literatura de los primeros cristianos respecto a la sexualidad. Los múltiples debates entre las distintas sectas cristianas entre los siglos II - IV nos muestran una religión férreamente fraccionada, y cuyos líderes moldeaban su pensamiento a comunidades específicas. Sin duda alguna es un libro maravilloso, brillantemente escrito y con un rigor literario muy bien cimentado, una lectura obligada para entender el nacimiento (e interesantísimos debates) en torno a las actitudes occidentales/cristianas respecto al sexo.

[Briana Grenert · Rating 5 out of 5]

One can only dream of one day writing a book as thought-provoking, and enduringly relevant as The Body and Society. So much of this felt familiar because of how Brown has shaped not just Late Antiquity as time period but how we tell the story of sexual renunciation in the church. This book is extremely well written and well organized.
I've read several of his articles and had the privilege of meeting him a few years ago - something that will remain one of the great joys of my life.

[Jeremy Meeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in depth look at the first few centuries of Church history, revealing the ways Christians helpful, unhelpfully, and definitely imperfectly thought and taught about the body, mostly in reaction to the cultures around them.

[Zach Waldis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brown's writing style is a bit strange, and I recommend other works like From Shame to Sin on this topic. Still, Brown's survey is thorough and interesting, if for no other reason than that early Christian asceticism was so strange (and perhaps still is).

[Adam Loft · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating study of early Christian culture and the late Roman Empire through the lens of its attitudes to celibacy.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A difficult read.

[Ben Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

peter brown unbeaten

[S. Alberto ঌ⁻⁷ (semi-active, always yearning) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*UR (Under Review; aka I'm writing it)

[Paul Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Peter Brown’s work when I was studying the Later Roman Empire at University. I’ve enjoyed returning to it in reading The Body and Society – Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christendom.

The book reviews the development of ideas around sexual continence and asceticism in the first four centuries of Christianity. It looks at the issue across time and the different regions of the Roman Empire, confirming the view of the author that Christianity was not originally the monolithic belief system it was later to become.

Brown covers a range of fascinating vignettes of the individuals and communities who, in different ways, saw sexual restraint as a core expression of their Christian faith. The book explores how the issue was used to distinguish Christianity from other belief systems and the tensions between those groups who advocated a message of continence within the traditional norms of society and those who advocated a much more radical transformation of behaviour.

Peter Brown is a brilliant historian who brings to his writing a massive breadth of scholarship with a great gift for storytelling. Above all he excels, in particular, in bringing out the sense of difference which exists between our own times and those of past including in this context the very different backdrop to sexuality and childbearing which existed in a world which lived with such high levels of infant and maternal mortality.

I found this a fascinating period to study when I first came across it 40 years ago. If it grabs your interest, there is no better place to start than the works of Peter Brown.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. I wouldn't recommend unless someone is really interested in the interplay between religion and sexuality because it's fairly dry and academic, but the scope it covers is fascinating. Brown illustrates how various groups within early Christianity embraced celibacy for a multitude of different reasons based on their particular theology surrounding the body, the soul, life, God, marriage, asceticism, etc. He does tend to name-drop theologians, philosophers, and other early Christian leaders that someone without a background in these kinds of topics might not recognize, but it's still possible to read without getting every reference. Probably the most frustrating aspect of the book was Brown's habit of inserting bracketed additions to just about every quotation in the book, many of which are not actually necessary for clarification. This heavy-handed editing got irritating quickly. But aside from that, I appreciated that the book was thoroughly researched and clearly written, and I gained a much more nuanced understanding of commitments to celibacy (and the Church's evolving teachings on sex and marriage) than I had previously.

[Brian Hohmeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Body & Society' is an excellently written survey, loosely bound around its titular theme. While perhaps wanting for a central argument, it tracks well with the development of views of body and sexuality by the Church in its various temporal and imperial-geographical contexts. It lacks no depth of insight or personality; unlike many survey texts of Church history, Brown does not merely report but performs intelligent and insightful synthesis, bringing with comment contemporary and distantly juxtaposed figures of early Christian history together to reveal the coherently diverse landscape demonstrated by their writings. As such, he ably shows the deep relevance that social forms and social philosophy have had on the formation of these theological views and, another triumph of a scholar, does so without succumbing reductionism. 'The Body & Society' falls on a rather short list of library books that I have read yet may still buy for myself.

[bl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only the best historian of antiquity but, perhaps, one of the most delicate writers of prose of our time. Just a marvel of learning and elegance, this great treasure that is the mind of Peter Brown, and reading him makes us reckon with the past, yes, but more importantly it makes us reckon with ourselves, and with a world that is full of mystery and wonder, a strange world, perhaps, but a world that we can almost touch, through the miracle that is the prose of Peter Brown, with its deceitful transparency, with its empathy, with its riveting astronomical metaphors, with this form of deep learning that can only be forged very slowly through many nights of reading in foreign languages, and travelling across the sandy hills of Syria, and, especially, through lingering, lingering in words and sources and sentences, lingering on a sound like Peter Brown lingers on an s or a b when he reads and stutters, just a wonder that a book like this exists.