The Manly Eunuch, part 1

[JesusA (imported)]

Another book that may be of interest to those concerned either with the history of eunuchs or with the origins of contemporary Christian attitudes toward castration is

The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity, by Mathew Kuefler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. x, 437pp. List price for the hard cover (no paperback yet) is $45.00 and Amazon does not offer a discount. Your local college library ought to have a copy of it. Maybe even your local public library if the town is big enough and diverse enough.

Kuefler writes extremely well in his analysis of how, as Roman men became Christians, Christianity became a religion for Roman men. He explores the cult of masculinity and the fears of gender ambiguity that were part of the pagan culture of the western half of the Roman Empire, the fears exacerbated by the number of eunuchs and the frequency of castration in Rome. The tensions between these fears and the Christian demand for celibacy, or, at least, chastity, led to new interpretations of the roots of Christianity. Kuefler shows us how early Christian theologians revised both the faith and the masculine ideals of Roman society in order to attract men from the elite classes. A challenging, but exciting read.

The book consists of 8 chapters:

Part I - Changing Realities

1 - "Masculine splendor": sexual difference, gender ambiguity, and the social utility of unmanliness

2 - "Men receive a wound, and submit to defeat": masculinity, militarism and political authority

3 - "A purity he does not show himself": masculinity, the later Roman household, and men's sexuality

Part II - Changing Ideals

4 - "I am a soldier of Christ": Christian masculinity and militarism

5 - "We priests have our own nobility": Christian masculinity and public authority

6 - "My seed is a hundred times more fertile": Christian masculinity, sex, and marriage

7 - "The manliness of faith": sexual difference and gender ambiguity in Latin Christian ideology

8 - "Eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven": castration and Christian manliness

As a sample of the style and quality of writing, I will post the first part of Chapter 8 over the next few days. The chapter is broken into sections:

The Christian response to pagan castration [to be posted today]

Biblical traditions on castration [to be posted within a couple of days]

Physical and spiritual castration

Monks as manly eunuchs