The Body and Society

Rating:
Summary: an excellent, scholarly study
Review: Brown's book is the finest study available on sexuality and the body in the early Church. This book sheds great light on the classical, Jewish , and Christian conceptions of the body and how important those conceptions were in early Christianity, especially for early Christian asceticism. This is a must read for anyone interested in gaining a serious appreciation of the early Church. Many histories focus primarily on the Development of Christian Doctrine and Ecclesial structures. An understanding of early Christian spirituality and asceticism illuminates early Christian doctrine and church structure even more.

Rating:
Summary: Quite Obsolete
Review: In the late 70ies Protestant and Jewish scholars started to reexamine the carnal world of the early Christians. Since then daring new views have come up showing that Catholic Christianity as it developed since the 2nd century is not the same as New Testament Christianity which was deeply rooted in Judaism and its attitudes towards the body. Scholars like Jane Schaberg (1987), Raymond J. Lawrence (1989) and more recently Philo Thelos (2003) have shown that early Christian women and men treated each other in a very revolutionary manner experimenting with freedom and, compared to their pagan background, were all but chaste. It was the Catholic church that later took over Roman and pagan attitudes about family, marriage, virginity and chastity. Peter Brown's treatment of Jewísh attitudes towards the body emphasizes hellenistic Judaism and only slightly discusses much more body-oriented orthodox Judaism. His views on the apostle Paul are simply outdated and reflect traditional atheist views. Mr. Brown, however, correctly observes a trend towards asceticism among late antique Christians. This trend, however, did not originate in allegedly stern attitudes of the new Christian religion but in the failure of many early Christians to, the long run, embrace, keep up and enjoy the freedom offered to them. It was the young Martin Luther who reexplored the bodily freedom offered by the Gospel. The Calvinists and modern Bourgeois middle class Christians again lost that freedom. Interestingly enough, today it is Atheists who challenge Christians and their heritage of carnal freedom.

Rating:
Summary: Theme not very carefully defined
Review: The title of Mr. Brown's book is deceiving. He asserts to write about sexual renunciation in early Christianity. Instead he basicly writes about sexual renunciation in among the Gnostics. There is a good reason why devoted Christians of all denominations view Gnosticism as a heresy. Gnosticism is very much rooted in pagan, i.e. Indian and Persian religious esoteric beliefs. As scholars like A. Vööbus ("History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient") have shown, sexual asceticism is not anything originally Jewish or Christian, but has been taken over by certain groups of Christians from Eastern religions. Of course, these groups have heavily influenced church Christianity and made Christians and non-Christians alike believe that celibacy is a truly christian virtue. However, church christianity has never been exactly the same kind of Christianity as the one depicted in the New Testament.

Rating:
Summary: Quite Obsolete
Review: This book is an introduction for those who are just approaching the ancient world of early christianity, and a guide full of insight for those who already have had a look of it. It is as important to philosophers as to historians, and to all those who are interested in the <<origins>> of Christianity and all the trouble it had before becoming one of the most expanded religions and cultures on our world. Moreover it makes an important step in linking the history of religion and of thought to the history of the human body. Mr. Brown wrote an excellent history book where any person seriuosly interested in the ancient world can find important information. Information, though, is not the only important thing in History, and in this book we can find much more: useful anecdotes are beautifully depicted in the very right place in order to make the thinking and the more practical need of our ancestors more undersandable to our western technological eyes. Also let me add, that this book is the result of some thirty years of reserch and extensive, but deep reeding of the writings and deed of the Fathers of Christianity. This book is, for us, an exceptional chance to read not only the translations of a very experienced translator of ancient literature but also his comments and crossed inquiries.