Description
Book SynopsisExamples of sexual violence and mentions of it appear with a disturbing level of frequency in the literature of early Christianity. This collection of essays explores these occurrences in canonical and noncanonical Christian texts from the first until the fifth centuries CE. Drawing from a range of interpretive lenses, scholars of early Christianity approach these writings with the goal of identifying how their authors employ the language of sexual assault, rape, and violence in order to formulate and support various rhetorical and theological claims. Individual chapters also address how and why these episodes of sexual violence have been ignored or, sometimes, read in a way that would make them less problematic. As a collection, Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts examines these texts carefully, ethically, and with an eye toward shining a light on the scourge of sexual violence that is so often manifest in both ancient and contemporary Christian communities.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Christy Cobb and Eric Vanden Eykel
1. Sexual Slander and Moral Supremacy in the Elenchos
Tara Baldrick-Morrone
2. Danaids and Dirces in Roman Corinth: Sexualized Violence and Imperial Spectacle in 1 Clement
Chance E. Bonar
3. Euclia’s Story: Coordinated Sexual Assault, Violence, and Willfulness in the Acts of Andrew”
Christy Cobb
4. “Guardians of Chastity and Companions in Suffering”: The Didactic and Rhetorical Function of Rape Threats in Ambrose of Milan
Jennifer Collins-Elliott
5. Corinthian Concerns and Textual Assault
Arminta Fox
6. Sexual Violence, Martyrdom, and Enslavement in Augustine’s Letter 111
Midori Hartman
7. Virginity, Bestiality, and Virtue in Sozomen’s Account of the Attack of the Consecrated Virgins of Heliopolis
LaToya M. Leary Francis
8. Tertullian of Carthage, Sexualized Violence, and the “Abjection” of the Female Flesh
Travis W. Proctor
9. Paul Trading Barbs: Sexual Invective as Gendered Violence
Joshua M. Reno
10. Ambivalent Wedding Imagery in Matthew’s Jerusalem Narrative
Laura Robinson
11. Virgin Acts: Blinding, Castration, & the Violence of Male Chastity
Jeannie Sellick
12. Assaulting the Virgin: How the Protevangelium of James Hides Sexual Violence
Eric Vanden Eykel
13. Five Husbands: Slut-Shaming the Samaritan Woman
Meredith J. C. Warren
14. Revelation Naturalizes Sexual Violence and Readers Erase It: Unveiling the Son of God’s Rape of Jezebel
Stephen Young
About the Contributors
