>On another note: I would be interested in hearing from the scholarly world
>about John Boswell
> His works have created minor controversies in this Midwestern college
> seminar i am in and it would be interesting to hear what the rest of
> you know or have to say about his work on the Church and homosexuals
> during the Medieval period.
>
>thanks for any info in advance
>
>chris van huss
Chris:
The response to Boswell's _Same Sex Unions_ is an interesting story in
itself, some of which Peter Steinfels reviewed in the "Beliefs" column in
NYT 06/03/95. I reviewed it myself in _Christian Century_ (January 18,
1995, pp. 49-54). That was a very negative review: in fact, having received
the book from the editor and read it, I returned it and said they should
find someone else to do it because I didn't like trashing books in print,
but the editor was very persuasive. Two other destructive reviews, both
very well informed, are those of Brent Shaw in _New Republic_, July 18 &
25, 1994, pp. 33 ff.; and Robert Wilken in _Commonweal_, 9 Sept. 1994, pp.
24 ff. The latter two take Boswell to be doing what he seems to be doing --
arguing for the existence of homosexual marriages -- and rebut this. I
argue that's he's not even doing that: the logic is so slippery and the
arguments so inconsistent that it's not clear what he's supposed to be
showing. (The above three pieces are really review articles.)
BUT the book received a positive review from Joan Cadden in _Speculum_ 71
(1996), 693 ff., and a very warm and affectionate review from Catherine
Mooney in _Harvard Divinity Bulletin_ 24:1 (1994), pp. 18 ff. Perhaps the
question is whether the work is wrong but stimulating and provocative or
just plain wrong and distracting. The facts (a) that Boswell was (by all
accounts: I never met him) a superb mentor of students and a delightful
human being and (b) that he died in 1995 while the reviews (mainly
negative) were still appearing made the whole issue more painful. By the
way, one might compare this work (merely as regards methodology) with Mark
Jordan's more careful and responsible scholarship in _The Invention of
Sodomy in Christian Theology_ (1997).
Hope this helps.
Lyndon Reynolds.
- - -
Lyndon Reynolds (Emory University), [log in to unmask]
Aquinas Center of Theology
1703 Clifton Road #F-5
Atlanta, GA 30329, U.S.A.
(404) 727-8861 FAX: (404) 727-8862.
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