ABSTRACT
Recent scholarly assessments of sexuality, sexual relations, and sexual renunci-ation in early Christianity are part of a larger and very lively interdisciplinary discussion that is currently shaping research in classical studies, religion, anthropology, cultural studies, and other fields. The key methodological and topical questions in this discussion arise from contemporary scholarship in gender studies and the history of the body, as well as feminist, social, and critical theory. Broadly speaking, one could say that current research related to sexuality and focusing on ancient Christianity is characterized by an interest in both historical/social reconstructions as well as the examination of ideology and rhetoric, and how these relate to issues of authority and power. Christian argumentation and practices cannot be understood apart from the broader cultural contexts of the late ancient Mediterranean. It is not enough simply to summarize contemporary Jewish or pagan moral teaching as ‘background’ for Christianity. Rather, Christian texts, their authors, and their subjects embody and express cultural contexts and social expectations that are not limited to one religious tradition. Thus scholars are interested not only in explicating the overt theological argument or practical instructions of a text but also in accounting for the logic of its context in, for example, contemporary moral theory, medical models, systems of authority, and gender constructions.
