School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Books
Title
Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece
Files
Click here for this book
Description
Celibacy is a commitment to remain unmarried and to renounce sexual relations, for a limited period or for a lifetime. Such a commitment places an individual outside human society in its usual form, and thus questions arise: What significance does such an individual, and such a choice, have for the human family and community as a whole? Is celibacy possible? Is there a socially constructive role for celibacy?
These questions guide Dale Launderville, OSB, in his study of celibacy in the ancient cultures of Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece prior to Hellenism and the rise of Christianity. Launderville focuses especially on literary witnesses, because those enduring texts have helped to shape modern attitudes and can aid us in understanding the factors that may call forth the practice of celibacy in our own time. Readers will discover how celibacy fits within a context of relationships, and what kinds of relationships thus support a healthy and varied society, one aware of and oriented to its cosmic destiny.
Publisher’s Website
ISBN
9780814656976 0814656978
Publication Date
2010
Publisher
Liturgical Press
City
Collegeville, Minn.
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | History of Religion | Islamic World and Near East History | Religion
Recommended Citation
Launderville, Dale. Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2010.