Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality

“What makes this work so exciting is not simply its content . . . but its revolutionary challenge to . . . Western culture’s most familiar moral assumptions.” —NewsweekJohn Boswell’s National Book Award–winning study of the history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the early Christian West was a groundbreaking work that challenged preconceptions about the Church’s past relationship to its gay members—among them priests, bishops, and even saints—when it was first published thirty-five years ago. The historical breadth of Boswell’s research (from the Greeks to Aquinas) and the variety of sources consulted make this one of the most extensive treatments of any single aspect of Western social history.Now in this thirty-fifth anniversary edition with a new foreword by leading queer and religious studies scholar Mark D. Jordan, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality is still fiercely relevant. This landmark book helped form the disciplines of gay and gender studies, and it continues to illuminate the origins and operations of intolerance as a social force.“Truly groundbreaking work. Boswell reveals unexplored phenomena with an unfailing erudition.” —Michel Foucault“Revolutionary. . . .sets a standard of excellence that one would have thought impossible in the treatment of an issue so large, uncharted and vexed. . . . Improbably as it might seem, this work of unrelenting scholarship and high intellectual drama is also thoroughly entertaining.” —New York Times Book Review“One day, when all churches accept the presence and achievements of gay people with approbation instead of denial or disapproval, Boswell will in no small way be responsible.” —Gay & Lesbian Review