Monastic Desires

A groundbreaking study of homoeroticism and homophobia in medieval Orthodoxy exploring erotic spirituality within the monastic tradition.

This groundbreaking study of homoeroticism and homophobia in medieval Orthodoxy places Symeon the New Theologian's erotic spirituality of union with God in the context of preaching and civil and canon law against homosexuality. A radical new interpretation of the Byzantine monastic tradition by a preeminent authority on medieval Christianity.The Byzantine Abbot Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022) transgressed the homophobic norms of medieval Orthodox society. His longing for God was distinctly homoerotic, and he depicted union with the divine as a queer sort of marriage. His Orthodox theology of theosis, the deification of the entire person, meant that Symeon taught the salvation of all the parts of the body. But monks also desired the eradication of lust and the punishment of those who fell prey to it. Sermons and biblical commentary defined men who had sex with men as sodomites; and saints' lives warned of the consequences of same-sex desires. Those who renounced sex redirected their desire rather than eliminating it. Symeon's queer erotics shed light on other devotions distinctive to medieval Orthodoxy, including the veneration of saints and worship with icons. Monastic Desires makes a groundbreaking contribution to the history of sexuality and the history of Christianity.