The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology

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by Mark D. Jordan

University of Chicago Press

Due/Published September 1998, 176 pages, paper

ISBN 0226410404

In this reexamination of what it means to have a tradition, Catholic and otherwise, Mark D. Jordan offers a study of the sin of erotic love between men. The Invention of Sodomy reveals the theological fabrication of arguments for categorizing genital acts between members of the same sex. Jordan explores the invention of Sodomy by medieval Christendom, examining its conceptual foundations in theology and gauging its impact on Christian sexual ethics both then and now.

"A crucial contribution to our understanding of the tortured and tortuous relationship between men who love men, and the Christian religion--indeed, between our kind and Western society as a whole. . . . The true power of Jordan's study is that it gives back to gay and lesbian people our place in history and that it places before modern theologians and church leaders a detailed history of fear, inconsistency, hatred and oppression that must be faced both intellectually and pastorally."--Michael B. Kelly, Screaming Hyena

"[A] detailed and disturbing tour through the back roads of medieval Christian thought."--Dennis O'Brien, Commonweal

"Being gay and being Catholic are not necessarily incompatible modes of life, Jordan argues. . . . Compelling and deeply learned."--Virginia Quarterly Review

Review

The term "sodomy" was first coined by theologians during the middle ages, and ever since then it has carried a powerful stigma in the Christian church. In this challenging new work, Mark D. Jordan discusses the changing meaning of the word sodomy in his examination of medieval religious and scholastic texts. For Jordan the meaning of sodomy as constructed in the middle ages continues to inform both the church and Western society today, often with harmful results. Jordan writes, "This book is then an exercise in witnessing the theological invention of arguments for categorizing -- that is for uniting and reifying, for judging and punishing -- genital acts between member of the same sex...Whatever the limits of representation, I do mean to show in the following pages that the category 'Sodomy' has been vitiated from its invention by fundamental confusions and contradictions. These confusions and contradictions cannot be removed from the category. They are the stuff from which it was made. That is why 'Sodomy' has had such a long life in oppressive legislation and demagoguery. It is confused and contradictory in just the way that oppressors and demagogues find advantageous. If I am right, the category "Sodomy" cannot be used for serious thinking. It certainly cannot be used for rethinking what Christian theology has to say about human sex."