Book

The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology

Mark D. Jordan · 1997

Jordan's genealogy of the term 'sodomy' as a Christian theological invention; load-bearing for the Christianity-sex-hangup case study (Augustine → medieval scholastics → Aquinas → modern formations).

Sequence ladder

Narrative Intelligence sources live outside the figurative image sequence ladder. Adaptive placement applies to image sequences, not this reading library.

Themeresearch-bulk-chunkjord-is

Context1997research_analysis

Appears in

Sex & Religion

What this book knows

Christian theology invented 'sodomy' as a category through medieval textual condensation, not biblical discovery — and that invention still governs us.

Sex: Primary
Work: Absent
Learning: Present
Religion: Primary

religion-and-sexobedience-and-authorityshame

religion-and-sex

They first abolish details, qualifications, restrictions to enable an excessive simplification in thought, condensing them into a category that looks concrete but is not.
JORD-IS-RC-031
There is no text of the Christian Bible that determines the reading of Sodom as a story about same-sex copulation; scripture itself points to arrogance and ingratitude.
JORD-IS-RC-034

obedience-and-authority

Alternate readings have been pushed out of the way by the sexual ones. When Gregory thinks of Sodom, his first thought is of sexual sin, not of pride.
JORD-IS-RC-037
I mean to recover the medieval acts of invention that constituted Sodomy and prepared for its long-standing effects.
JORD-IS-RC-004
Every believer was now required to confess sins faithfully at least once a year to his or her own priest, institutionalizing moral surveillance.
JORD-IS-RC-093

shame

There is no strict separation between Sodom and the hermitage. What is it to flee from a city that one is?
JORD-IS-RC-064

Illuminates

6 published passages · book excerpt · research analysis

Reader resonance signals for text sources are not wired to this view yet.

Same era

Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible

The Role of Self-Concept in Predicting the Success of Academically and Financially Disadvantaged Students within Higher Education Opportunity Programs

The Content of Religious Instruction: A Social Science Approach

Henry and June

The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Classic Stories

Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence

Beloved

The Swimming-Pool Library

Loading profile…