From Shame To Sin Christianity

Decent Essays
This article clearly showed that the Romans enjoyed having sex. This comes as no surprise to me because I have already taken a class on Greek and Roman mythology and have seen countless number of nudist art they obsessed over for generations. This article makes its evident that Christianity is a major reason that the moral codes of sex changed as the Roman Empire died and Christianity rose is popularity. One of the most important lessons that can be taken from this article is that many moments that we consider historically accurate are in fact, incorrect. Until Kyle Harper wrote, From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity, we did not understand the sexual codes that were in place prior to the Christian

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Kirk Ormand is a classics professor at Oberlin University who specializes in sexuality in the ancient world. Throughout chapters eight, ten, and thirteen of his book Controlling Desires, Ormand looks at many aspects pertaining to Roman sexuality. An overarching theme of the three chapters looks at what was considered normal sexual behavior in Rome, with a focusing at times on homosexuality in Rome. Over the course of the chapters, Ormand looks at Rome’s origins and interrelation to Greece with regards to sexuality, how each gender was supposed to act, and how laws and others may use language of sexuality against one another. Lastly Ormand looks at how the imperials, specifically the infamous Nero, went about different sexual escapades.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The main idea of “The Puritans and Sex” article is to explain how the Puritans were a religious group, who created sex laws based on their views of marriage and human behavior. It explains in depth how the Puritans seek out different attempts to prevent the people of New World from committing adultery, fornication, and/or rape. The author Edmund S. Morgan uses a few facts to support the main idea of the article. He uses stories written by ministers to inform the reader of sexual events that took place at the time.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper, I wanted to review "Things Fearful to Name": Bestiality in Colonial America by John M. Murrin. Bestiality was a person who had the sex relationship with animals. When the bestiality occurred, people decided to make prosecution by using the law. In the society, laws could help people to prevent the wrong thing occurred and warned all people to act correctly. From this article, I understood people's attitude on the bestiality and sodomy during the colonial period.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ben Franklin and Jonathan Edwards approach the notion of human perfectibility differently. Edwards indicates that humans have a perverted nature and that will eventually lead to their downfall. Franklin, however, talks about his life and accomplishments, and includes advices and tips of his own on moral improvement. In looking at Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Franklin’s autobiography, one must examine Edwards’s illustration on the harsh consequences for sinning and the condemned fate of humans, and Franklin’s constant interest in self-improvement. We will find that Edwards believes that humans aren’t able to truly purify and perfect themselves, while Franklin holds that one is able to achieve perfectibility through learning…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It covers more than just sexual morality, but it highlights how Roman laws and customs dictated morality but political and social struggles lead to a warped version of the ideal. Stories of immorality are almost always to framed to serve multiple purposes, usually as a cautionary tale and to persuade public opinion, and, as in all patriarchal societies, women are judged much more harshly for their transgressions. This source provides a general sense of how the idea of immorality changed over time and was used to fit different agendas at the cost of the sexual power of…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout history, researchers have relied on the visual artistic culture represented through pictorial language as one of the main ways to analyze Roman Society. Some of this information became highly controversial as it contradicted some of the ideals proposed by various literary documents and artifacts. One of the aspects that over time has provided historians with a perplexing definition of the relationship between sexuality and Roman everyday life was the erotic frescoes situated in the Suburban Baths of Pompeii. This imagery in a sense proposed that sexual practices were a natural constitute of normal Roman society. In this essay through analysis of these frescoes, I will examine how images of taboo sex acts in the Suburban Baths accentuate the normative expectation of dominating men by mocking the depictions of the dominant women in Ancient Rome.…

    • 1927 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Leviticus 18: 22 and 20:13: The Rejection of the Christian Homophobic Moral The rejection of homosexuality is prevalent throughout Christian societies. This denunciation stems from the Christian interpretation of normative relationships as found in biblical passages such as Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. These passages directly assert the rejection of male-male sexual relations.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Cultural construction of sexuality can be defined as the view that perceptions and attitudes towards sexuality varies due to the diversification in values and practices amongst various cultures. In this essay, I will argue that sexuality is culturally constructed and explore the different ways in which it is perceived and understood, as well as analysing the reasons for these differences. Firstly, I will look at sexually restrictive cultures and discuss how religion and ethos cause some cultures to have strict morals and beliefs regarding sexuality. Secondly, I will go on to look at sexually permissive cultures and explore how some cultures have greater freedom and openness towards sexuality, exploring the alternative connotations of sexual…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A Midwife's Tale author demonstrates the understanding of the themes of women, childbirth, and gender in the early America history. The episode indicates that women in the society held a subordinate role. Besides, cases of mortality rate were relatively high as compared to the modern society. The author also affirms that gender was a significant aspect that defined roles and duties of members of the society (Ulrich 12). Therefore, the analysis of the relationship development, sexual practices, Martha’s role as a woman, and sexuality issues in the A Midwife's Tale can enhance the formulation of effective means to support equality in the contemporary society.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Christians took on actions and sermons demonizing Hadrian and Antinous to win the public over to Christianity's conversion. Hadrian’s creation of a cult in honor of Antinous after his death was a blasphemous rival to Christianity as well. Discrimination and social stigma about relationships between two men outside the narrow set of guidelines that The Roman culture established existed in the second century. However, compared with what followed and lasted until the twentieth century, the Romans were centuries ahead of their time regarding gay social issues. Hadrian’s history not demonstrates an emperor’s psyche and intimate connection to homosexuality, but it also shines light on Christianity as a cult and its arrogance, ridicule, and resistance to evolve.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Schlafly for the next ten years would echo much of what Eleanor Roosevelt and liberal detractors of the ERA stated and expand on their arguments infusing her brand of Christian Republicanism into her arguments. Quoting from Schlafly whose article was included in Donald Critchlow’s Debating the American Conservative Movement: “Our Judeo-Christian civilization has developed the law and custom that, since women must bear the physical consequences of the sex act, men must be required to bear the other consequences and pay in other ways.” Schlafly contended that the ERA would “force women to work outside the home, abolish alimony and child support, and make women subject to the military draft.”…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Astarte Research Paper

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Furthermore, Astarte exists as the Greek name of her counterpart Ishtar of the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Semitic people of Mesopotamian; Astarte also became worshipped in Egypt and Syria, among the Hittites, as well as in Canaan. She became assimilated with the Egyptian deities Isis and Hathor; and in the Greco-Roman world with Aphrodite, Artemis and Juno. Decisively, Hebrew scholars now feel that the goddess Ashtoreth referenced oftentimes in the Bible exists as an intentional alternate for the Greek name Astarte. As one can determine, the intertwining of the goddesses overlaps one lustful deity after the next; virtually, intermingling them indefinitely. The Decline of the Great Goddess…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Romans: The Natural World

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Gentiles were also guilty of substituting natural, God-given relations for those “contrary to nature” (Romans 1:26, ESV). In other words, both men and woman among the Gentiles were performing homosexual acts with one another. The behaviors done by the people of Romans are still seen today as a result of the fall. Those who have read other book of the bible concerning marriage and purity understand that homosexual acts are an abomination. God designed marriage and sex to be between one man and one woman.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan theologian who was a primary figure during the Great Awakening. Edwards delivered his fiery sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” to his puritan congregation in 1741 using powerful images of heaven and hell and a sense of urgency to convince sinners to come to Christ. To achieve his desired purpose of urging sinners to receive God’s grace before it is too late, Edwards employs ethos, logos, and pathos. Edwards uses ethos to appeal to his congregation to convince them to turn from their wicked ways.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gender Roles In Othello

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Othello, by Sir William Shakespeare, is a play about a black moor, Othello, who marries Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator. This play contains various themes such as racism, love, betrayal, revenge, and gender. Shakespeare defies gender norms of the Renaissance by portraying Desdemona as a woman who does not conform to female expectations of the Renaissance. In this sense, the Renaissance ideals of femininity were submissiveness, piety, patience, silence, and chastity. This rebelliousness against heteronormativity is what eventually causes Desdemona’s death.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays