Description
Book SynopsisWomen's virginity held tremendous significance in early Christianity and the Mediterranean world. Early Christian thinkers developed diverse definitions of virginity and understood its bodily aspects in surprising, often nonanatomical ways.Eventually Christians took part in a cross-cultural shift toward viewing virginity as something that could be perceived in women's sex organs. Treating virginity as anatomical brought both benefits and costs. By charting this change and situating it in the larger landscape of ancient thought,Virgin Territoryilluminates unrecognized differences among early Christian sources and historicizes problematic ideas about women's bodies that still persist today.
Trade Review"An exciting and essential addition to the ever-growing body of scholarship on the body in antiquity." * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
"Lillis offers a sophisticated study that enhances historians’ sensitivity to an intellectual history of virginity." * Plekos *
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Notes to the Reader
Abbreviations for Series and Reference Works
Introduction: Ancient and Present-Day Meanings for Virginity
PART ONE. Virginity with and without Virginal Anatomy
1. Testing, Showing, and Perceiving Virginity in Antiquity
2. Mary’s Forms of Virginity in Early Christian Writings
PART TWO. Christian Conceptualizations of Virginity in the Fourth Century
3. Virginity of Body and Soul: Fourth-Century Christian Configurations
4. Sealed Fountains: The Imagery of Fourth-Century Christian Virginity Discourse
PART THREE. The Cost of Anatomized Virginity for Late Ancient Christians
5. Perceptible Virginity: Its Usefulness and Consequences
6. Augustine of Hippo and the Problem of Double Integrity
Conclusion: Variety Persists
Bibliography
Index
