One of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary American culture is gay rights.
Within Christian circles, the debate is no less heated. From the role of Christian
groups in opposing the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage (Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al.),
to Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis' refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses under her signature because of her apostolic Christian beliefs (see the PBS video below), Christian churches are front and center in the national
debate. And each of these Christian individuals and churches bases their teaching
on the Bible and early Christian practice.
But what do the
(few) texts about homosexual acts really say in the Bible? What WAS early
Christian practice? And, more importantly, what gender assumptions about women and men ground these teachings?
So far in the course we have concentrated on the Jewish world and on
the context of the historical Jesus. But soon after Jesus' execution,
Christianity spread to the Greek-speaking world, where the social, economic, religious
and political situation of women, and the understanding of sexual behavior, was somewhat different. The first primary reading for today comes from classical Greece, and will help us see these differences. It comes from the
pen of the Greek soldier and philosopher Xenophon (ca.430-356 BCE).
Xenophon admired Socrates greatly, and many of his works are a kind of defense
of the great philosopher (recall that Socrates had been publicly executed). For
example, Xenophon sets up today's excerpt as a dialogue between Socrates and a
successful gentleman farmer, Ischomachus. In the excerpt, Ischomachus
explains to Socrates how he has succeeded in managing his household so well (Oeconomicus
means "household management"; it is the Greek term from which our word
"economy" derives). As you read, try to determine:
The role of the woman in the elite classical Greek household.
The husband's responsibility vis-à-vis his wife.
The relationship proposed between natural and social order.
Then turn to the few biblical
texts on same-sex relations. As you read them, try to notice where the "anxieties" are about male power and position. What is forbidden? What is not mentioned that you might expect to be? You will read some passages from the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament), and from later Christian texts in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy. In our secondary reading, a queer scholar, Dale Martin, will focus just on those NT texts, and will explore just what the the Greek terms actually mean. Come to class clear on the terms and Martin's definitions so that we can discuss how and why these terms are (mis)translated so often in your Bibles.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Homosexualitatis
problema [Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, October 1, 1986]." Acta
Apostolicae Sedis 79 (1987) 543-554.
For Catholic Church teaching and alternative views on the issue of marriage in particular, please see Catholic Church Teaching on Marriage, a bibliography Prof. Murphy has compiled for SCTR 165R Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation.
Seow, Choon-Leong. "A Heterosexual
Perspective." In Homosexuality and Christian Community
(ed. Choon-Leong Seow; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996) 14-27.
Williams, Craig A. Roman Homosexuality, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010; original, 1999.
Links
The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality - Matthew Vines, a gay 22-year old Harvard undergraduate raised in a conservative evangelical church in Kansas, presents a one-hour lecture on YouTube in which he presents the result of his research on the Bible and homosexuality, and Christianity's current debates on this topic. Watch the lecture and write an extra credit paper in which you introduce the speaker, summarize his remarks, tie them to our class, and evaluate the presentation. If it is helpful, here is an op-ed piece by Leonard Pitts, Jr. about the video that was posted in the Silicon Valley Mercury News.com on 3 May 2012.
Photograph: 7th Century Icon of Sts. Serge and Bacchus, originally in
the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, now in the Kiev Museum of Eastern
and Western Art. From the cover of John Boswell, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern
Europe.
One of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary American culture is gay rights.
Within Christian circles, the debate is no less heated. From the role of Christian
groups in opposing the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage (