Mathew Kuefler – författare

Few books have had the social, cultural, and scholarly impact of John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality". Arguing that neither the Bible nor the Christian tradition was nearly as hostile to homocroticism as was generally thought, its initial publication sent shock waves through university classrooms, gay communities, and religious congregations. Twenty-five years later, the aftershocks still reverberate. "The Boswell Thesis" brings together fifteen leading scholars at the intersection of religious and sexuality studies to comment on this book's immense impact, the endless debates it generated, and the many contributions it has made to our culture. The essays in this magnificent volume examine a variety of aspects of Boswell's interpretation of events in the development of sexuality from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages, including a Roman emperor's love letters to another man; suspicions of sodomy among medieval monks, knights, and crusaders; and the gender-bending visions of Christian saints and mystics.Also included are discussions of Boswell's career, including his influence among gay and lesbian Christians and his role in academic debates between essentialists and social constructionists. Elegant and thought-provoking, this collection provides a fitting twenty-fifth anniversary tribute to the incalculable influence of "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" and its author.

Few books have had the social, cultural, and scholarly impact of John Boswell's "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality". Arguing that neither the Bible nor the Christian tradition was nearly as hostile to homocroticism as was generally thought, its initial publication sent shock waves through university classrooms, gay communities, and religious congregations. Twenty-five years later, the aftershocks still reverberate. "The Boswell Thesis" brings together fifteen leading scholars at the intersection of religious and sexuality studies to comment on this book's immense impact, the endless debates it generated, and the many contributions it has made to our culture. The essays in this magnificent volume examine a variety of aspects of Boswell's interpretation of events in the development of sexuality from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages, including a Roman emperor's love letters to another man; suspicions of sodomy among medieval monks, knights, and crusaders; and the gender-bending visions of Christian saints and mystics.Also included are discussions of Boswell's career, including his influence among gay and lesbian Christians and his role in academic debates between essentialists and social constructionists. Elegant and thought-provoking, this collection provides a fitting twenty-fifth anniversary tribute to the incalculable influence of "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" and its author.

A crusader, a hermit, a bishop, a plague victim, and even a repentant murderer by turns: the stories attached to Saint Gerald of Aurillac offer a strange and fragmented legacy. His two earliest biographies, written in the early tenth and early eleventh centuries, depicted the saint as a warrior who devoted his life to pious service. Soon Gerald was a venerated figure, and the monastery he founded was itself a popular pilgrimage site. Like many other cults, his faded into obscurity over time, although a small group of loyal worshippers periodically revived interest, creating sculpted or stained glass images and the alternate biographies that complicated an ever more obscure history.The Making and Unmaking of a Saint traces the rise and fall of devotion to Gerald of Aurillac through a millennium, from his death in the tenth century to the attempt to reinvigorate his cult in the nineteenth century. Mathew Kuefler makes a strong case for the sophistication of hagiography as a literary genre that can be used to articulate religious doubts and anxieties even as it exalts the saints; and he overturns the received attribution of Gerald's detailed Vita to Odo of Cluny, identifying it instead as the work of the infamous eleventh-century forger Ademar of Chabannes. Through his careful examination, the biographies and iconographies that mark the waxing and waning of Saint Gerald's cult tell an illuminating tale not only of how saints are remembered but also of how they are forgotten.

Volume I offers historiographical surveys and general overviews of central topics in the history of world sexualities. Split across twenty-two chapters, this volume places the history of sexuality in dialogue with anthropology, women's history, LGBTQ+ history, queer theory, and public history, as well as examining the impact Freud and Foucault have had on the history of sexuality. The volume continues by providing overviews on the sexual body, family and marriage, the intersections of sexuality with race and class, male and female homoerotic relations, trans and gender variant sexuality, the sale of sex, sexual violence, sexual science, sexuality and emotion, erotic art and literature, and the material culture of sexuality.

Volume II focuses on systems of thought and belief in the history of world sexualities, ranging from early humans to contemporary approaches. Comprising eighteen chapters, this volume opens with a chapter on the evolutionary legacy and then delves into the sexualities of ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome, continuing with pre-modern South Asia, China, and Japan, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Chapters include an examination of sexuality in the religious traditions of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and also look at more recent approaches, including scientific sex, sexuality in socialism and Marxism, and the intersections between sexuality, feminism, and post-colonialism.

Volume III provides in-depth analyses of specific times and places in the history of world sexualities, to investigate more closely the lived experience of individuals and groups to reveal the diversity of human sexualities. Comprising twenty-five chapters, this volume covers ancient Athens, Rome, and Constantinople; eighth- and ninth-century Chang'an, ninth- and tenth-century Baghdad, and tenth- through twelfth-century Kyoto; fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Iceland and Florence; sixteenth-century Tenochtitlan, Istanbul, and Geneva; eighteenth-century Edo, Paris, and Philadelphia; nineteenth-century Cairo, London, and Manila; late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Lagos, Bombay, Buenos Aires, and Berlin, and twentieth-century Sydney, Toronto, Shanghai, and Rio de Janeiro. Broad in range, this volume sheds light on continuities and changes in world sexualities across time and space.

Volume IV examines the intersections of modernity and human sexuality through the forces, ideas, and events that have shaped the modern world. Through eighteen chapters, this volume examines connections between sexuality and the defining forces of modern global history including capitalism, colonialism, migration, consumerism, and war; sexuality in modern literature and print media; sexuality in dictatorships and democracies; and cultural changes such as sex education and the sexual revolution. The volume ends with discussions of the difficult issues we in the modern world continue to face, such as restrictions on reproductive rights, sex tourism, STDs and AIDS, sex trafficking, domestic violence, and illiberal attacks on sexuality.

Split into four volumes, The Cambridge World History of Sexualities examines sexualities across time and around the world at varying geographic and chronological scales. Featuring over eighty contributions from scholars across more than twenty countries in a number of disciplines, the volumes represent a cross-disciplinary approach that characterizes the history of sexuality as a field in itself. The first volume combines historiographical essays with general overviews of important topics and themes. The second evaluates sexuality in systems of thought and belief, from early humans to contemporary feminism. The third targets specific locations at different times to navigate further the lived experience of individuals and groups. Lastly, the fourth examines the intersection of modernity and human sexuality on issues such as colonialism and consumerism. Thorough and authoritative, the collection is a much-needed addition to the world history of sexualities.

Encompassing prehistory to the twenty-first century, this two-volume collection features a wide array of sources from religious, legal, and medical texts to poetry, novels, sex manuals, plays, art, and photographs, drawn from every continent, to explore human sexuality across time.In Volume One, historian Mathew Kuefler delves into the eras from prehistory to the sixteenth century, touching upon themes including patriarchy, gender diversity, sexual norms in religious and medical traditions, and perceptions of sexual “others.” Volume Two focuses on the modern period, addressing topics such as sexual thought among puritans and libertines, scientific influences, censorship, and sexuality as self-expression and liberation. Each volume is structured around thematic chapters, with twenty sources per chapter and five chapters per volume, allowing for use in both chronological and thematic teaching. This collection is ideal for courses in the history of sexuality or world history, gender and women’s studies, sociology, or cultural studies.The Global History of Sexuality Sourcebook emphasizes both the universal aspects of human sexuality and the particularities of individual and cultural experience, challenging students and readers to think critically about how sexual norms, identities, and practices have been shaped across time and place.