This course provides an introduction to the varieties of thought
about food and sex in early Christianity, beginning with the New
Testament in the first and second centuries and tracing vectors of
thought into the sixth century.  Our primary focus will be the
renunciation of food and sex in this period, but will also be how
food and sex functioned as the locus of controversy.  Why did
ancient Christians fast or impose celibacy on themselves?  Why did
they differ in the degree of imposition?  Why was renunciation of
food and sex seen in some circles as the “best” way to be a
Christian?  What was at stake in controversies over food and sex?
This course will attend to such questions by engaging in a
chronological survey of the varieties of both informal and
institutionalized attitudes toward food and sex in early
Christianity and by examining the ways that ancient Christians lived
out their thought on the matter.  This topic will bring us into
dialogue with ancient psychology, physiology, medicine, cosmology,
soteriology, ecclesiology, martyrology, and scriptural
interpretation.  While a basic understanding of late antique social
and ecclesiastical history is helpful, no previous knowledge of
Greco-Roman, Jewish or Christian material is assumed.