Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity
Jennifer Wright Knust
Number of quotes: 14
Book ID: 457 Page: 1/2
Section: 2D3A
From ancient times until today, accusers have sought to undermine, embarrass, and even overthrow political leaders on the basis of their (real or alleged) sexual wrongdoing. Such charges do not appear only in the contentious realm of governmental power politics; sexual slander has also served as an important tool in the production of group boundaries. Outsiders are accused of being sexually deviant in some way while insiders are described as sexually pure.{3}
Quote ID: 9991
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 4
Section: 2D3A
Christianity was once nothing but a novel, deadly superstition, or so its detractors claimed. But Christians were accused of even worse: from incest to orgies, nocturnal religious rites, and the ceremonial murder of an infant, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth were said to pursue “a religion of lust” that venerates genitalia, tricks initiates into ritualized cannibalism, and serves as a cover for the indiscriminate sating of desire.{17}
Quote ID: 8968
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 4
Section: 2D3A
Apparently, by the mid-second century, Christians were widely suspected of such behavior. But Christians were not the only group accused of an addiction to illicit sex and other moral or religious crimes during this period: Jews were said to worship the head of an ass, perform human sacrifice, and pursue lust, despite their famously strict marriage customs.{19} Conversely, Jews characterized Greeks or Egyptians as profligate, perverse, and adulterous.{20} Greeks represented Persians as slavish and licentious;{21} yet, according to several Roman authors, it is the Greeks who are lascivious pleasure seekers.{22}
Quote ID: 9992
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 5
Section: 2D3B
The second-century heresiologist Ireneaus summed it up: pseudo-Christians always “live licentious lives and hold godless doctrine.”{25} Greek, Roman, Jew, Persian, Christian, and heretic were all accused of sexual impropriety of one sort or another; enemies were inevitably represented as sexually profligate whether the author of the charge was a first-century Greek-speaking Jew or a second-century Roman aristocrat.{26}
Quote ID: 8970
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 5
Section: 2D3A
The practice of charging one’s intended victim with sexual misbehavior can be read as part of a rhetorical tradition extending back as least as far as fourth-century Athens.
Quote ID: 8971
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 6
Section: 2D3A
Sexual slander, therefore, was a widespread practice in ancient polemics, and similar charges were deployed both against Christians and by Christians. Still, however widespread and stereotypical, charges of sexual misbehavior were hardly “mere rhetoric.” Intended to malign and defame, these accusations were deployed in fierce struggles for identity, prestige, and power.
Quote ID: 8972
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 6
Section: 2D3A
These accusations do not offer straightforward evidence of sexual practice; rather, they indicate a conflict between the author and those whom he maligned.
Quote ID: 8973
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 7
Section: 2D3A
…accusations of sexual immorality lodged by Romans against one another were central to the “agonistic rituals of Roman political life.”{34}
Quote ID: 8974
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 9
Section: 2D3B
By utilizing sexualized discourse to define the contours of their group, Christian authors adopted a common strategy.
Quote ID: 9993
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 13
Section: 2D3A
To conclude, the early Christian authors under consideration here operated within their particular cultural and rhetorical contexts, employing tools of rhetoric they shared with their neighbors in ways that served their own persuasive projects.
Quote ID: 8976
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 89
Section: 4A
During the second century, there arose a defensive sort of Christian writing designed to address new, pointed criticisms of the movement.….
Though they did “not completely identify themselves with the broader society,” these authors were also not “advocates of confrontation or revolution”; rather, they hoped to persuade educated elites familiar with Greek philosophy to adopt a more sympathetic view towards the Christians, explaining their movement in terms that outsiders could both understand and appreciate.{1} A few of these treaties were addressed specifically to the emperors….
[Footnote 1: Robert Grant, Greek Apologists, esp. 1-33.]
….
In this way, second-century Christian authors took it upon themselves to argue that Christianity “was the embodiment of the noblest conceptions of Greek philosophy,{3} defending their religion as decent, law abiding, and loyal to Rome.
Quote ID: 9994
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 457 Page: 91/92
Section: 4A
Recent interpreters, noting the oppositional tone of the rhetoric these authors employed, have come to regard the opening address to the emperor or other rulers—when it occurs—as a literary fiction. “In practice,” Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price observe, “the Apologies seem not be have been much read by non-Christians, their importance lying in their internal consumption within the church.”{12} Francis Young agrees, arguing that these writings were probably in-group documents designed to justify the decision by Christian elites to reject the literature and customs of their ancestral community in favor of a religion that was “regarded by most people … as a suspiciously alien culture.”{13} The “apologies,” then were not directed at the emperor or even at interested outsiders but at fellow Christians who had already converted but were having second thoughts.[Footnote 12] Beard, North, and Price, Religion of Rome, 1:310.
Quote ID: 9995
Time Periods: 247
Book ID: 457 Page: 93
Section: 4A
A limited appreciation of philosophy, such as is found in Justin’s writings…....
…described Christianity as the fulfillment of all truth, wherever it might be found. In other words, even when these writers discussed philosophy, they did so to lend further credence to beliefs they identified as “Christian,” not to recommend central (non-Christian) values.
Quote ID: 9996
Time Periods: 2
Book ID: 457 Page: 114
Section: 2E7
Similarly, when the followers of Christ sought to denounce one another they often did so in sexual terms.
Quote ID: 9997
Time Periods: 2347
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