The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography

by Virginia Burrus

Book Overview

"Brilliant and important. . . . From page one she challenges approaches to hagiography that dismiss ascetic desire as the sublimation of sexuality and a pathological hatred of the body."--Theological Studies "Countering the assumption that ascetics repress, sublimate, or even eradicate sexual desire, this fine book detects a vibrant eroticism in tales of fourth- and fifth-century saints. Rather than read ancient saints' lives as anti-erotic,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081222020X
• ISBN13: 9780812220209
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"