Monastic Desires - Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and the Love of God in Medieval Constantinople

The Byzantine Abbot Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) transgressed the homophobic norms of medieval Orthodox society. His longing for God was distinctly homoerotic, and he depicted union with the divine as a queer sort of marriage. His Orthodox theology of theosis, the deification of the entire person, meant that Symeon taught the salvation of all the parts of the body. But monks also desired the eradication of lust and the punishment of those who fell prey to it. Sermons and biblical commentary defined men who had sex with men as sodomites; and saints' lives warned of the consequences of same-sex desires. Those who renounced sex redirected their desire rather than eliminating it. Symeon's queer erotics shed light on other devotions distinctive to medieval Orthodoxy, including the veneration of saints and worship with icons. Monastic Desires makes a groundbreaking contribution to the history of sexuality and the history of Christianity.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Loving God: the queer fantasies of Symeon the New Theologian; 2. The homophobia of George the Monk: an archeology of opprobrium; 3. The edge of yearning: deferred delights in Symeon's Hymns; 4. Homoeroticism and Byzantine monastic life: contexts and queries; 5. Andromania: homosexual panic in tenth-century hagiography; 6. The repenting sodomite: from penitential canons to the life of Nephon; 7. Of semen and tears: Niketas Stethatos on bodies and boundaries; 8. Icons of desire, bodies of devotion: Niketas Stethatos and the life of Symeon the New Theologian;Coda: glancing back at Sodom.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Derek Krueger is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a preeminent scholar of Byzantine Christianity. His books include Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium (2014) and Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East (2004).

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Krueger Derek
• Verlag: Cambridge Academic
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Fester Einband
• Erscheint: 31.03.2026
• EAN: 9781009648332
• ISBN: 978-1-009-64833-2
• Illustration: 4 colour illus., Raster, farbig, Worked examples or Exercises
• Themen: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Geschichte; Sachbuch > Philosophie, Religion > Biographien, Autobiographien; European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, History of Religion, Medieval History, Biography: religious & spiritual, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Gay & Lesbian studies, Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500, Biography: religious and spiritual, European history: medieval period, middle ages, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE, Byzantine Empire, Religious communities and monasticism, Religious communities & monasticism, Early 11th century c 1000 to c 1050, Later 10th century, c 950 to c 999, LGBTQIA+ Studies / topics