Category Archives: Church of England and gender

One sex, two sexes, and Christians

Posted on August 31, 2016 by fluff35

The wonderful Twitter just drew my attention to this article I’d missed on the OUP blog when it was published in July: ‘The influence of premodern theories about sex and gender’ by Adrian Thatcher. Thatcher asks great questions about why … Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender | Tagged Adrian Thatcher, Bible, binaries, Hesiod, Hippocrates, intersex, one-sex body, Pandora, Thomas Laqueur, transgender, women priests | Leave a comment

Temple prostitution for Christians

Posted on August 14, 2016 by fluff35

Sex in the ancient world: it’s all about temple prostitutes, depraved emperors and orgies, right? Wrong. As readers of this blog will have noticed, now that the Shared Conversations in the Church of England appear to be over, I’ve moved … Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender | Tagged AIDS, Athens, Bacchanalia, Bosco Peters, Diana Swancutt, G.E.R. Lloyd, genre, Greece, Ian Paul, idols, King James Bible, lesbians, Livy, monogamy, orgies, pagan, Paris school, Romans 1:26, Romans 1:26-27, Rome, St Paul, temple prostitutes, translations | 8 Comments

Sharing the knowledge

Posted on July 6, 2016 by fluff35

Can we see each other for who we are? And can we stay together without descending into chaos? Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender, Shared Conversations | Tagged Andrew Symes, Christian Today, gaydar, General Synod, Jayne Ozanne, love, marriage, parishes, safety, sexuality, St Michael's House protocols, Street Pastors, women bishops | 1 Comment

Pausanias and Agathon: a ‘same sex relationship’?

Posted on July 4, 2016 by fluff35

Thinking Anglicans notes that the Evangelical Group of the General Synod, EGGS, has issued this briefing document to its members and friends ahead of General Synod’s shared conversations, scheduled to start on 10 July. The document proposes that “The ideas/opinions/statements expressed (in bold) are amongst those … Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender, Shared Conversations | Tagged ancient Greeks, Aristophanes, beard, Bible, EGGS, evangelical, history, kiss, love, Plato, soul, Symposium, Thinking Anglicans | 2 Comments

Gender at the Shared Conversations

Posted on June 10, 2016 by fluff35

To my mind, there’s an unfortunate effect of this being the aspect of Greek male sexuality which Christian sites tend to focus on: it leads to an elision between homosexuality and pederasty which is not appropriate today. Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender, Shared Conversations | Tagged All Souls Langham Place, ambition, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Eastern Orthodox, General Synod, impurity, menstruation, Movement for the Ordination of Women, Pope Gregory, Rachel Held Evans, women bishops | Leave a comment

The Greeks didn’t have a word for it

Posted on June 3, 2016 by fluff35

A lot of statements about the ancient Greeks, the Romans, and sexuality can be found on Christian websites. They give the impression that there’s complete certainty surrounding their comments, for example on the Greeks ‘tolerating homosexuality’, phrasing which implies a historically-consistent … Continue reading →

Posted in Church of England and gender | Tagged anal sex, David Halperin, erastes, eromenos, homosexuality, Kenneth Dover, Michel Foucault, pederasty | 19 Comments

Meanwhile, back in the toilet…

Posted on March 28, 2016 by fluff35

This is the third in a series of reflections after the Shared Conversations (edited 31 March) In a previous post, I’ve commented on how wonderful it was to get to the loo and sit alone in a space where nobody … Continue reading →