Book Description

In 1970 William Phipps rocked Christianity with his controversial Was Jesus Married? The Distortion of Sexuality in the Christian Tradition, ushering in a generation of critical study of this sacrosanct subject. The Sexuality of Jesus is the harvest of his research. Carefully analyzing such subjects as celibacy, sexuality, and gender in first-century Palestine, Phipps suggests how Jesus's life and teaching undermined traditional attitudes toward women and the human body-and how the Jesus of the Gospels can inform discussions of gender and sexuality today. How does the Christian tradition of sexual renunciation reflect-or distort-biblical and Christian understandings of the body? Does Jesus represent the full flowering of sexuality, or its rejection? How did women, particularly Mary Magdalene, view Jesus? Addressing these and other questions, Phipps seeks to release the pivotal personality of Jesus from the dehumanizing treatments found in much of the Christian tradition. Unabashedly dealing with the most contentious of topics, The Sexuality of Jesus is a fresh and provocative analysis of sexuality and religious faith. Book jacket.