Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.
I learned of this book from Kevin Brown’s Diglotting blog. Kevin was discussing his summer reading plans, and he said the following about Crompton’s Homosexuality and Civilization:
“Most thorough book I’ve seen on the topic (a little over 600 pages
long). It covers how homosexuality was perceived in a variety of
cultures, from ancient Greece and Rome to imperial China and pre-Meiji
Japan. It is pretty inexpensive too!”
I’m holding off on buying the book, but I did check it out from a
local library and read it. It is thorough. It is also honest
scholarship. Crompton
was a prominent figure in the field of gay studies. Yet, Crompton is
not afraid to disagree with other pro-gay scholars like John Boswell.
Whereas Boswell argued that Christianity was fairly tolerant towards
homosexuality up to a certain point in time, Crompton paints historical
Christianity as homophobic, even supportive of death for people who
engaged in sodomy. Crompton acknowledges that Christianity made
positive contributions to the world, but he does not consider its stance
on homosexuality to be one of them.
You may hear arguments by gay or pro-gay Christians that attempt to
place the Bible in a positive light, to argue that the Bible does not
really condemn homosexuality. Crompton either questions those
arguments, or the facts that he presents call the arguments into
question. Some argue that the ancient Israelites prohibited homosexual
activity because they wanted Israel to have a large population in a
world in which she was vulnerable; Crompton does not buy this, for he
does not believe that is a sufficient explanation for the hostility
towards homosexuality in Leviticus 20:13, which calls for death for
same-sex activity, when there are peaceful ways to incentivize
fertility. Crompton does, however, speculate that the association of
transexuality with pagan worship may have contributed to ancient
Israel’s animus towards homosexuality. Some note that Jesus did not
criticize homosexuality. Crompton himself finds this odd, for there
were Gentile cities in Galilee, and same-sex activity probably occurred
there, so Jesus was presumably aware of same-sex activity. Still,
Crompton concludes that Jesus probably absorbed the prejudices of his
Jewish environment. Some argue that Paul in Romans 1 was criticizing
pederasty (love for boys) and had no conception of same-sex marriage or
two people of the same sex entering into a lifelong union of
commitment. While Crompton talks at length about men’s love for boys in
the ancient world, he also notes ancient examples of lifelong love and
commitment between two people of the same sex.
Overall, what I saw as I read Crompton’s book was a history of
cultural ambivalence towards homosexuality. Some cultures were more
open than others, but most of the cultures that Cromtpon discusses had
pro- and anti-homosexual voices. There were voices that regarded
homosexuality as unnatural (since it did not produce children), as
disruptive to family loyalty, and as responsible for ills that the
culture was experiencing (due to divine displeasure, or other factors).
Ancient Greece was quite open, but Plato in his later work (Laws) was
critical of homosexuality. China was really open, too, but there were
people who believed that homosexuality contradicted Confucian family
values. Japan was open but became more opposed to homosexuality with
Western influence. Within Christianity, the Renaissance, and the
Enlightenment, there was stern opposition to homosexuality, and yet
there were plenty of people, including high-ranking people, who engaged
in sodomy. One Christian conservative said to me that homosexuality was
universally stigmatized until recently; that is far from true, for
there were plenty of cultures that were open. Still, many cultures had
some voices that were critical of homosexuality.
The book also covered interesting details: odd attempts by thinkers
to account for homosexuality (i.e., it’s due to not enough women being
around), anti-sodomy laws in early America (Thomas Jefferson thought he
was being more humane by advocating castration rather than death as the
punishment), and such fascinating figures as the seventeenth century
Queen Christina of Sweden, who was rather skeptical of religion and
abdicated the throne when she converted to Catholicism, perhaps to be
with a woman. One can learn a lot about history from this book.