Abandoned to Lust: Sexual Slander and Ancient Christianity
Jennifer Wright Knust
Number of quotes: 7
Book ID: 457 Page: 4
Section: 2D3A
Christianity was once nothing but a novel, deadly superstition, or so its detractors claimed. But Christians were accused of even worse: from incest to orgies, nocturnal religious rites, and the ceremonial murder of an infant, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth were said to pursue “a religion of lust” that venerates genitalia, tricks initiates into ritualized cannibalism, and serves as a cover for the indiscriminate sating of desire.{17}
Quote ID: 8968
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 5
Section: 2D3B
The second-century heresiologist Ireneaus summed it up: pseudo-Christians always “live licentious lives and hold godless doctrine.”{25} Greek, Roman, Jew, Persian, Christian, and heretic were all accused of sexual impropriety of one sort or another; enemies were inevitably represented as sexually profligate whether the author of the charge was a first-century Greek-speaking Jew or a second-century Roman aristocrat.{26}
Quote ID: 8970
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 5
Section: 2D3A
The practice of charging one’s intended victim with sexual misbehavior can be read as part of a rhetorical tradition extending back as least as far as fourth-century Athens.
Quote ID: 8971
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 6
Section: 2D3A
Sexual slander, therefore, was a widespread practice in ancient polemics, and similar charges were deployed both against Christians and by Christians. Still, however widespread and stereotypical, charges of sexual misbehavior were hardly “mere rhetoric.” Intended to malign and defame, these accusations were deployed in fierce struggles for identity, prestige, and power.
Quote ID: 8972
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 6
Section: 2D3A
These accusations do not offer straightforward evidence of sexual practice; rather, they indicate a conflict between the author and those whom he maligned.
Quote ID: 8973
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 7
Section: 2D3A
…accusations of sexual immorality lodged by Romans against one another were central to the “agonistic rituals of Roman political life.”{34}
Quote ID: 8974
Time Periods: 1247
Book ID: 457 Page: 13
Section: 2D3A
To conclude, the early Christian authors under consideration here operated within their particular cultural and rhetorical contexts, employing tools of rhetoric they shared with their neighbors in ways that served their own persuasive projects.
Quote ID: 8976
Time Periods: 1247
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