John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947 -
December 24, 1994), was a prominent historian and a professor
at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of homosexuality and religion, specifically homosexuality and Christianity.
Biography
Born in Boston in 1947 into a military family, Boswell earned his undergraduate degree
from the College of William and Mary, where he converted to
Roman Catholicism. His nickname, from his initials, was "Jeb". A gifted medieval
philologist who spoke (inter alia) fluent Catalan,
he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1975, whereupon he joined the Yale University history faculty as its
rising star; he was made full professor in 1982. In 1987, Boswell
helped organize and found the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale, which is now the Research Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies.
He was named the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History in 1990, when he was also appointed to a two-year term as chair of the
Yale history department. Boswell was a gifted and devoted teacher. His undergraduate lectures in medieval history were renowned
for their organization, erudition, and wit, with the course often making the "top 10" for highest enrollment. The multi-talented
Boswell would pen his comments on student papers in perfectly executed medieval calligraphy.
Books
Boswell was the author of the ground-breaking and controversial book Christianity, Social
Tolerance and Homosexuality (1980), which, according to Chauncey et al (1989), "offered a revolutionary interpretation
of the Western tradition, arguing that the Roman Catholic Church had not condemned gay people throughout its history, but rather,
at least until the twelfth century, had alternately evinced no special concern about homosexuality or actually celebrated love
between men." The book was crowned with the American Book Award for History and the
Stonewall Book Award in 1981.
He is known primarily, however, as author of The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in
Pre-Modern Europe (New York: Villard, 1994), in which he argues that the
adelphopoiia liturgy was evidence that attitude of the Christian church towards homosexuality has changed over time, and that early
Christians did on occasion accept same-sex relationships.[1]
Rites of so-called "same-sex union" (Boswell's proposed translation) occur in ancient prayer-books of both the western and
eastern churches. They are rites of adelphopoiesis, literally Greek for the making of brothers. Boswell, despite the fact that the rites explicitly state that the
union involved in adelphopoiesis is a "spiritual" and not a "carnal" one, argued that these should be regarded as sexual
unions similar to marriage. This is a highly controversial point of Boswell's text, as other scholars have dissenting views of
this interpretation, and believe that they were instead rites of becoming adopted brothers, or "blood brothers".[2][3][4] Boswell pointed out such
evidence as an icon of two saints, Saints Sergius and Bacchus (at St. Catherine's on Mount
Sinai), and drawings, such as one he interprets as depicting the wedding feast of Emperor Basil to his "partner", John.
Boswell sees Jesus as fulfilling the role of the "pronubus" or in modern parallel, best man.
Boswell made many detailed translations of these rites in Same-Sex Unions, and claimed that one mass gay wedding occurred only a couple of centuries ago in the Basilica of St John Lateran, the cathedral seat of the Pope
as Bishop of Rome.
Boswell's writings touched off detailed debate in The Irish Times, and the
article that triggered off the debate, a major feature in the "Rite and Reason" religion
column in the paper by a respected Irish historian and religious commentator, has been reproduced on many websites[5]
Boswell also wrote The Kindness of Strangers: Child Abandonment in Western Europe from Late
Antiquity to the Renaissance. This may be the first scholarly study of the nearly universal practice of abandoning
unwanted chilren and the means by which society tries to care for them. The Royal Treasure is a detailed historical study
of the Mudejar Muslims in Aragon
in the 14th century.
Although some of Boswell's books became best-sellers, he made few concessions to the popular market. His books have many
footnotes, most of which are more than references to other works but actually add information and insight to the main text. He
quotes several ancient and modern languages (notably Greek) in their own alphabets,
although he does transliterate Arabic with diacritical marks.
Faith and sexuality
Boswell himself was throughout his life a devout Roman Catholic. Although he
was orthodox in most of his beliefs, he strongly disagreed with his church's stated opposition to homosexual behavior and
relationships. To a certain degree much of the work and research Boswell did regarding the Christian church's historical
relationship with homosexuality can be seen as an attempt (which some regard as successful) to rationalize his sexual orientation.
In Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories (1982, revised), Boswell compares the
constructionist-essentialist positions to
the realist-nominalist dichotomy. He also
lists three types of sexual taxonomies:
- All or most humans are polymorphously sexual ... external accidents, such as socio-cultural pressure, legal sanctions,
religious beliefs, historical or personal circumstances determine the actual expression of each person's sexual feelings.
- Two or more sexual categories, usually, but not always based on sexual object choice.
- One type of sexual response [is] normal ... all other variants abnormal.
Death
Boswell died of complications from AIDS on December 24, 1994, at age 47.
Works
- The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century (1977) – Online
- Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980)
- Rediscovering Gay History: Archetypes of Gay Love in Christian History (1982)
- The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance
(1989)
- Homosexuality in the Priesthood and the Religious Life (1991) (co-author)
- Forms of Desire: Sexual Orientation and the Social Constructionist Controversy (1992)
- The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Union in Premodern Europe (1994)
See also
Notes
References
- Boswell, John (1989, 1982). "Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories", Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay
& Lesbian Past, Chauncey et al, eds. New York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-452-01067-5.
- Chauncey et al, eds (1989). "Introduction", Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past (1990), New
York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-452-01067-5.
External links
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