Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church PDF
Preview Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church
N T R N A T O N A L B E 8 T S E L L E I I- I EUNUCHS FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN m i WOMEN, SEXUALITY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH I he book ibal accuses the Roman C atholic C burcb ol degradingwomen and undci___ /lieNew }<n-lt Iimes UTA RANKE HEINEMANN >- International acclaim for Eunuchsfor the Kingdom ofHeaven: "She's very spunky, she's spicy, she's provocative. But she has . . . lots and lots ofsober evidence, a—snowstorm offact, ofquotations." Peter Heinegg, The Boston Globe "A savagely witty polemic against the anti-feminism of Catholicism and its sexual pessimism." — The Observer (London) "A dense academic examination . . . Ranke-Heinemann is passionate and easily understandable in expla—ining her view." San Francisco Chronicle — "Ranke-Heinemann tackles some meaty topics here contraception, abortion, priestly celibacy. ... To these front-burner issues she brings formidable scholarship." — Kirkus Reviews "A powerful book by the first-app—ointed woman theologian" Ham and High (London) "The detail and the venom with which she expounds such a view should be the stuffofprolonged d—ebate amongst theologians." Catholic Herald "Ranke-Heinemann writes extremely well and organizes her masses ofmaterial with a well-timed subt—lety which makes it fun to read.'' New Statesman & Society "She wants to shake Rome's continuing insistence on the immorality ofcontraception and the restrictionofpriesthood tocelibates. She has certainly supplied the opponents ofthose positions with an arsenal of evidence." — The New York Times "Eunuchsforthe Kingdom ofHeaven delivers a sweepingindictmentof the church's attitude toward sex."— The Vancouver Sun (Canada) "Ranke-Heinemann displays great skill in marshalling material and sustaining arguments. Facts and dates burst out of every page with relentless energy." — Scotland on Sunday "Thisbookistrenchant, rigorouslyresearched, andbrilliantwithirony and insight." — Glasgow Herald (Scotland) PENGUIN BOOKS EUNUCHS FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN Uta Ranke-Heinemann holds a Ph.D. in Catholic the- ology. She qualifiedas auniversitylecturerat the Uni- versity of Essen, West Germany, in 1969, the first woman ever to do so in the field of Catholic theology. In 1970 she became a professor of Catholic theology. She lost her academic chair in New Testament and Ancient Church History at the university for inter- preting Mary's Virgin Birth theologically and not bio- logically. Since late 1987 she has held the chairfor the History ofReligion at the University of Essen. Eunuchs FOR THE Kingdom OF Heaven Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church UTA RANKE-HEINEMANN Translated by Peter Heinegg PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS Publishedby the PenguinGroup VikingPenguin, adivisionofPenguin Books USAInc., 375 Hudson Street, NewYork, NewYork 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 27Wrights Lane, LondonW8 5TZ, England Penguin BooksAustralia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books CanadaLtd, 10AlcornAvenue, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaM4V 3B2 Penguin Books(N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190Wairau Road, Auckland 10, NewZealand Penguin Books Ltd, RegisteredOffices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Firstpublishedin the United StatesofAmericaby Doubleday, adivisionofBantam DoubledayDell PublishingGroup, Inc., 1990 Reprintedbyarrangementwith Doubleday Publishedin Penguin Books 1991 13579 8642 10 English translationcopyright© Doubleday, adivisionofBantam DoubledayDell PublishingGroup, Inc., 1990 All rights reserved ThisbookwasoriginallypublishedinGermanin 1988underthetitleEunuchenfiir das Himmelreich: Katholiscke Kirche und Sexualitat, copyright © Hoffmann und CampeVerlag, Hamburg, 1988. THELIBRARYOFCONGRESS HAS CATALOGUEDTHE HARDCOVERAS FOLLOWS: Ranke-Heinemann, Uta, 1927- [EunuchenfurdasHimmelrich. English] Eunuchsforthekingdomofheaven: women, sexuality, andthe—CatholicChurchby UtaRanke-Heinemann; translatedbyPeterHeinegg. 1sted. p. cm. ISBN 385 26527 1 (he.) ISBN0 1401.65002(pbk.) Translationof: EunuchenfurdasHimmelreich. Includesbibliographical references. — — — 1. Sex Religiousasp—ects Catho—licChurch Controversialliterature. 2. CatholicChurch Doctrines Controversialliterature. I. Title. BX1795.S48R3613 1990 241'.66'08822—dc20 89-48951 Printedin the United StatesofAmerica Except in the United StatesofAmerica, this book is soldsubjecttothecondition thatitshallnot,bywayoftradeorotherwise,belent,re-sold,hiredout,orotherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form ofbinding or cover other than thatin which itispublishedandwithoutasimilarconditionincluding thiscondition beingimposedon thesubsequentpurchaser. 1 CONTENTS Introduction The District Court's Jesus 3 / Non-Christian Roots ofChristian Sexual Pessimism 9 // The Ancient Taboo Against Menstrual Blood and Its Christian Consequences 2 III The New Testament, and How It Was Misunderstood: The Virgin Birth, Celibacy, and the Remarriage of Divorced Persons 27 /V The Church Fathers Till Augustine 46 V Family Planning in Antiquity: Infanticide, Abortion, Contraception 63 VI Augustine 75 VII The Evolution ofCelibacy 99 VIII Celibates' Fear ofWomen 1 1 9 IX The Suppression ofWomen by Celibates I25 X Lay People into Monks i 36 XI Penitentials and Punishment Tables / 46 XII Early Scholasticism, Part I: Marriage ofthe Lascivious and Josephite Marriage 1 53 — XIII Early Scholasticism, Part II: Abelard's Opposition A Tale of Woe 167 XIV Coitus Reservatus: The Recipe for Sinless Sex 1 71 — XV The Thirteenth Century: Golden Age ofTheology and Peak of Misogynistic Slander 1 77 Contents XVI Thomas Aquinas: Lumen Ecclesiae ("The Light ofthe Church") 1 83 XVH The HeightenedCampaign AgainstContraception ("Unnatural Sex") and Its Legal Consequences in the Church, from the Middle Ages to the Present 200 XVIII Incest 215 XIX Spells for Impotence, Satanic Loves, Witches, and Changelings 226 XX The Council ofTrent and Pope Sixtus the Momentous 242 XXI Luther and His Influence on Catholic Sexual Morality 257 XXH The Jansenists and Jesuit Morality 263 XXIII Contraception from 1500 to 1750 268 XXIV John Paul II and Sex for Pleasure 276 XXV The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Age of "Birth Regulation" 285 XXVI Abortion 298 XXVII Onanism 3 1 1 XXVIII Homosexuality 320 XXIX The Moral Theology ofthe Twentieth Century 324 XXX Notes on Mariology 340 Bibliography 349 Index ofNames 35 1 Index ofSubjects 358
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