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Same-Sex Unions In Premodern Europe » (First Vintage Books Edition)

Book cover image of Same-Sex Unions In Premodern Europe by John Boswell

Authors: John Boswell
ISBN-13: 9780679751649, ISBN-10: 0679751645
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date Published: May 1995
Edition: First Vintage Books Edition

Author Biography: John Boswell

Book Synopsis

Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them—in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies.

Publishers Weekly

The acceptance and sanctification of homosexual relations in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches during Medieval Europe are examined in this scholarly work. (June)

	Preface
	List of Abbreviations
	Introduction
1	"What's in a Name?": The Vocabulary of Love and Marriage	3
2	"For Family and Country": Heterosexual Matrimony in the Greco-Roman World	28
3	"A Friend Inspired by God": Same-Sex Unions in the Greco-Roman World	53
4	"This World Is Passing Away": Views of the New Religion	108
5	"What God Has Joined Together": The Development of Nuptial Offices	162
6	"Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediments": Comparison of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Ceremonies of Union	199
7	The History of Same-Sex Unions in Medieval Europe	218
8	"Those Who See and Those Who Do Not . . .": Subsequent Developments: A Look Forward	262
9	Epilogue	280
	Appendix of Translations	283
	Appendix of Documents	345
	Jewish Perspectives	364
	Manuscripts of the Same-Sex Union	372
	The Passion of SS. Serge and Bacchus	375
	Index	391