Celibacy

Abstract: List of illustrations Preface Prologue The inheritance, Christian and Roman The cult of celibacy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries The correspondence of Heloise and Abelard The marriage of Heloise and Abelard Marriage in law and practice The use of literary evidence for the history of marriage: Wolfram von Eschenbach The witness of Chaucer Love and marriage in Shakespeare The church porch: marriage and architecture Towards a theology of marriage

Abstract: Abstract This book bridges a gap between two traditional disciplines. Since the 1970s, there has been a remarkable outpouring of work on women in antiquity, but women in late antiquity (3rd-6th centuries AD) have been far less studied. Classicists have been more concerned with the first two centuries AD, and theologians have been interested in New Testament, rather than patristic teaching about women, or its social and cultural setting. In this book, Dr Clark offers an introduction to the basic conditions of life for women: marriage, divorce, celibacy and prostitution; legal constraints and protection; child-bearing, health care, and medical theories; housing, housework, and clothes; and the general assumptions about female nature which were discarded at need. Christian and non-Christian literature, art, and archaeology are used to exemplify both the practicalities of life and the prevailing `discourses' of the ancient world.

Abstract: In its contemporary colloquial usage, "virtue" is usually a term for female sexual prudence and benevolent activity with old-fashioned connotations. It evokes traits like chastity and altruism and, in a cynical post-sexualrevolution world, prudery and hypocritical do-goodism. On the one hand, these connotations are very old in Western culture. The sexual meaning of the word dates back to medieval and ancient times when the virtues were symbolized as virgins.' The Catholic ideals of celibacy and charity also reinforced the association of Christian virtue with sexual purity and personal sacrifice. On the other hand, the Protestant Reformation placed less emphasis on these qualities, criticizing the monastic ideal of celibacy and denying the spiritual efficacy of church offerings. It stressed other individual virtues-piety, temperance, frugality, and work in a useful calling.

Abstract: It is well known that mahatma gandhi felt that sexuality and desire were intimately connected to social life and politics, and that self-control translated directly into power of various kinds, both public and private. Gandhi's enigmatic genius and his popular appeal among India's masses may be attributed, at least in part, to the degree he was able to embody a powerful ideal of sexual self-control that linked his sociopolitical projects to pervasive Hindu notions of renunciation (S. Rudolph 1967). Affecting the persona of a world-renouncer, Gandhi was able to mix political, religious, and moral power, thus translating personal self-control into radical social criticism and nationalist goals. Gandhi's mass appeal was partly effected on a visceral level at which many Hindu men were able to fully appreciate the logic of celibacy as a means to psychological security, self-improvement, and national reform. Although my concern in this paper is not directly with Gandhi's notion of self-control, it is against the larger backdrop of his political legacy that I situate this discussion of sexuality, gender, and nationalism in contemporary India.