medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Try Virginia Burrus, _‘Begotten, Not Made’: Conceiving Manhood in Late Antiquity_ (Stanford U.P., 2000) and Mathew Kuefler, _The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity_ (Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2001).
Kuefler's book received a negative review from Conrad Leyser in _Journal of Roman Studies_ 93 (2003), 415-16 and a favorable one from Burrus in _Journal of Religion_ 83 (2003), 135-36.
Best,
John Dillon
On Monday, December 17, 2007, at 11:39 pm, Kevin Jang wrote:
> I am not sure if I am going on a bit of a wild goose chase here in my
> research. But I am trying to cast the net wide here. While reading the
> New Testament, in Matthew 19:12, " "For there are some eunuchs, which
> were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs
> which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made
> themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able
> to receive it, let him receive it." (Matthew 19:12 KJV). I am
> particularly intrigued by the idea of such links of the
> eunuch(spiritual or literal figure of speech) to the phenomenon of
> voluntary celibacy within the early medieval and late medieval phases
> of Christendom,particularly in cases like the encratitism of the East
> and also the high Middle Ages with ambiguous figures like Robert of
> Arbrissel who was actually associated with the founding of houses for
> laywomen who desired to escape the confines of their immediate
> surroundings(social and economic), including pr!
> ostitutes. So far, I have only arrived at one particular study of
> this field of voluntary celibacy and it is concentrated mainly in the
> period of the Carolingian Reform, namely Dyan Eliott's "Spiritual
> Marriage".
>
> Are any of the members here aware of any primary and secondary
> materials written in this field? On my own end, I am most aware of
> Augustine of Hippo's admiration for the priesthood, and the monastic
> orders, and also, his earlier Christian predecessor in the method of
> Biblical exegesis, Origen, who spurred off considerable controversy
> not only with his beliefs of the pre-existence of the soul, but also,
> his voluntary castration of himself so as to kill the sin of fleshly
> lust literally. I would be interested in hearing what members here
> have to say about this phenomenon of the eunuch(metaphorical or
> literal) in both the Byzantine East and the Latn West during the
> Middle Ages.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Kevin Jang
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