REL 31 Sex, Celibacy, and the Problem of Purity: Asceticism and the Human Body in Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity (c. 300-500 C.E.) was a time when Christians struggled to understand how gender, family life, and religion could intermesh. Did virgins get to heaven faster than those who marry? Can a chaste man and woman live together without succumbing to lust? Were men holier than women? What about women who behaved like men? This course examines the changing understanding of the body, marriage, sexuality, and gender within Christianity through reading saints’ lives, letters, polemical essays, and legal texts. Open to all classes.

Instructor

MacEvitt

Cross Listed Courses

CLST 11.06; WGSS 43.02

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:TMV; WCult:W

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Offered

• Winter