The biblical narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah has served as an archetypal story of divine antipathy towards same sex love and desire. 'Sodomy' offers a study of the reception of this story in Christian and Jewish traditions from antiquity to the Reformation. The book argues that the homophobic interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah is a Christian invention which emerged in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The Jewish tradition - in which Sodom and Gomorrah are associated primarily with inhospitality, xenophobia and abuse of the poor - presents a very different picture. The book will be of interest to students and scholars seeking a fresh perspective on biblical approaches to sexuality.

The biblical narrative of Sodom and Gomorrah has served as an archetypal story of divine antipathy towards same sex love and desire. 'Sodomy' offers a study of the reception of this story in Christian and Jewish traditions from antiquity to the Reformation. The book argues that the homophobic interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah is a Christian invention which emerged in the first few centuries of the Christian era. The Jewish tradition - in which Sodom and Gomorrah are associated primarily with inhospitality, xenophobia and abuse of the poor - presents a very different picture. The book will be of interest to students and scholars seeking a fresh perspective on biblical approaches to sexuality.

Explores the sexual world of the one of the most fabled and romanticized character in history--the pirate Pirates are among the most heavily romanticized and fabled characters in history. From Bluebeard to Captain Hook, they have been the subject of countless movies, books, children's tales, even a world-famous amusement park ride. In Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition, historian B. R. Burg investigates the social and sexual world of these sea rovers, a tightly bound brotherhood of men engaged in almost constant warfare. What, he asks, did these men, often on the high seas for years at a time, do for sexual fulfillment? Buccaneer sexuality differed widely from that of other all- male institutions such as prisons, for it existed not within a regimented structure of rule, regulations, and oppressive supervision, but instead operated in a society in which widespread toleration of homosexuality was the norm and conditions encouraged its practice. In his new introduction, Burg discusses the initial response to the book when it was published in 1983 and how our perspectives on all-male societies have since changed.

In this reexamination of what it means to have a tradition, Catholic and otherwise, Mark D. Jordan offers a powerful and provocative study of the sin of erotic love between men. The Invention of Sodomy reveals the theological fabrication of arguments for categorizing genital acts between members of the same sex.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, some sexual and gendered behaviors were labeled “sodomitical” or evoked the use of ambiguous phrases such as the “unmentionable vice” or the “sin against nature.” How, though, did these categories enter the field of vision? How do you know a sodomite when you see one? In Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages, Robert Mills explores the relationship between sodomy and motifs of vision and visibility in medieval culture, on the one hand, and those categories we today call gender and sexuality, on the other. Challenging the view that ideas about sexual and gender dissidence were too confused to congeal into a coherent form in the Middle Ages, Mills demonstrates that sodomy had a rich, multimedia presence in the period—and that a flexible approach to questions of terminology sheds new light on the many forms this presence took. Among the topics that Mills covers are depictions of the practices of sodomites in illuminated Bibles; motifs of gender transformation and sex change as envisioned by medieval artists and commentators on Ovid; sexual relations in religious houses and other enclosed spaces; and the applicability of modern categories such as “transgender,” “butch” and “femme,” or “sexual orientation” to medieval culture. Taking in a multitude of images, texts, and methodologies, this book will be of interest to all scholars, regardless of discipline, who engage with gender and sexuality in their work.

Sodomy in Early Modern Europe is a collection of essays that reflect closely the main areas of debate within gay historiography. In particular, for the last twenty years scholars have questioned the nature of early modern sodomy. The contributors have responded to these questions in a number of different and often apparently contradictory ways, and the essays which make up this collection reflect this diversity of approach. The volume includes essays on sodomy in English Protestant history writing, and sodomy in Calvin’s Geneva and early modern Venice.

During the late Middle Ages, a considerable number of men in Germany and Switzerland were executed for committing sodomy. Even in the seventeenth century, simply speaking of the act was cause for censorship. Here, in the first history of sodomy in these countries, Helmut Puff argues that accusations of sodomy during this era were actually crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation. Drawing on both literary and historical evidence, Puff shows that speakers of German associated sodomy with Italy and, increasingly, Catholicism. As the Reformation gained momentum, the formerly unspeakable crime of sodomy gained a voice, as Martin Luther and others deployed accusations of sodomy to discredit the upper ranks of the Church and to create a sense of community among Protestant believers. During the sixteenth century, reactions against this defamatory rhetoric, and fear that mere mention of sodomy would incite sinful acts, combined to repress even court cases of sodomy. Written with precision and meticulously researched, this revealing study will interest historians of gender, sexuality, and religion, as well as scholars of medieval and early modern history and culture.