Read more
This book analyzes the relation between the Churches’ official teachings regarding ‘desired’ and forbidden forms of sexual behaviour on the one hand, and mundane practice on the other hand, focusing on perspectives ‘from below’. Since the very beginning, Christianity has sought to regulate the love lives of its believers. The clergy’s growing influence on state institutions and the introduction of Christian sexual ethics left its mark on law, education and social norms. However, the everyday lives of most believers had little in common with the sexual norms propagated by clerics. The territory of Poland is especially interesting due to the fact that over the centuries different Christian confessions as well as distinct ethnic groups with various cultural norms co-existed there. Additionally, this edited collection looks at different groups of actors, such as peasants, the clergy or townspeople from the Early Middle Ages until the late twentieth century, and also includes different types of sources as well as of methodological approaches. This long-term perspective shows the impact and influence of Church teachings in a longue durée, and highlights social factors that both shaped discourses on sexuality and also indicated the changing power of the Church.
Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka is Researcher in the Department of History at Uppsala University, Sweden. She focuses on gender history, history of violence and religion in Early Modern Poland.
Michael Zok is Researcher at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. His research interests include the history of sexuality and media as well as comparative history.
List of contents
Introduction by Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka and Michael Zok.- PART I - STARTING POINT: THE EARLY AND HIGH MIDDLE AGES: CHRISTIANISATION OF SEXUALITIES AND PAGAN HERITAGE.- Krzysztof Skwierczyński; The Christianisation of Medieval Poland and Norms of Sexual Activity Prescribed by the Church.- PART II - THE LATER MIDDLE AGES: SEXUALITIES AMONG 'SHEPHARDS' AND 'FLOCKS'.- Marek Stawski; A Bit of Chastity and Modesty: Sexuality of the Clergy in Late Medieval Prussia and in the Diocese of Plock.- Małgorzata Kołacz-Chmiel; Sex Life of the Peasant Population vs. Christian Norms and Cannon Law in Late Medieval Poland.- PART III - THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD: SEXUALITIES IN CONFESSIONALISED COMMUNITIES.- Iurii Zazuliak; Sexual Boundaries, Religious-Ethnic Segregation and the Estate Solidarities in Red Ruthenia (Galicia) During the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.- Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka; On the Hunt for Sinners: How Lutherans Tried to Discipline the Sex Live in the Countryside in the Eighteenth Century.- Tomasz Wiślicz; 'Man cannot do without sin ...': The Catholic Church and Peasant Sexual Ethics in Early Modern Poland.- PART IV - THE 'LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY' AND THE INTERWAR PERIOD: SEXUALITIES IN MODERNISING SOCIETIES.- Alicja Urbanik-Kopeć; 'Abhor the sin as the snake': The Relationship Between the Teaching of Catholic Church and Working-class Female Sexuality in the Kingdom of Poland in the Late Nineteenth Century.- Natalia Kolb and Natalia Mysak; Body vs Soul: Catholic Church, Religious Upbringing and Sexual Problems of Galician Youths in the Second Half of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries.- Marcin Wilk; Sex, Youth, and Moral Panic in an Interwar Polish City: The Case of Tarnów.- PART V - TERMINUS: THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - DE- OR RE- CHRISTIANISATION OF SEXUALITIES?.- Michael Zok; 'We should admit that we have fewer true Catholics than statistics show': Sexuality, (Post-)Communism, and the Catholic Church in Poland.- Afterword by Sabrina Ramet.
About the author
Jaśmina Korczak-Siedlecka is Researcher in the Department of History at Uppsala University, Sweden. She focuses on gender history, history of violence and religion in Early Mern Poland.
Michael Zok is Researcher at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland. His research interests include the history of sexuality and media as well as comparative history.
Summary
This book analyzes the relation between the Churches’ official teachings regarding ‘desired’ and forbidden forms of sexual behaviour on the one hand, and mundane practice on the other hand, focusing on perspectives ‘from below’. Since the very beginning, Christianity has sought to regulate the love lives of its believers. The clergy’s growing influence on state institutions and the introduction of Christian sexual ethics left its mark on law, education and social norms. However, the everyday lives of most believers had little in common with the sexual norms propagated by clerics. The territory of Poland is especially interesting due to the fact that over the centuries different Christian confessions as well as distinct ethnic groups with various cultural norms co-existed there. Additionally, this edited collection looks at different groups of actors, such as peasants, the clergy or townspeople from the Early Middle Ages until the late twentieth century, and also includes different types of sources as well as of methodological approaches. This long-term perspective shows the impact and influence of Church teachings in a longue durée, and highlights social factors that both shaped discourses on sexuality and also indicated the changing power of the Church.
