Sex and the Church in the Long Eighteenth Century

Religion, Enlightenment and the Sexual Revolution

William Gibson, Joanne Begiato

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781784533779
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786721570
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

The Long Eighteenth Century was the Age of Revolutions, including the first sexual revolution. In this era, sexual toleration began and there was a marked increase in the discussion of morality, extra-marital sex, pornography and same-sex relationships in both print and visual culture media. William Gibson and Joanne Begiato here consider the ways in which the Church of England dealt with sex and sexuality in this period. Despite the backdrop of an increasingly secularising society, religion continued to play a key role in politics, family life and wider society and the eighteenth-century Church was still therefore a considerable force, especially in questions of morality. This book integrates themes of gender and sexuality into a broader understanding of the Church of England in the eighteenth century. It shows that, rather than distancing itself from sex through diminishing teaching, regulation and punishment, the Church not only paid attention to it, but its attitudes to sex and sexuality were at the core of society's reactions to the first sexual revolution.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. The Church’s Teaching on Sex
• 2. The Church, Sex, and the Public Sphere
• 3. Illicit Sex and the Church Courts
• 4. The Church, Marriage, and Marital Sex
• 5. Evangelicals, Sex, and Respectability
• 6. Celibacy, ‘Conjugal Chastity’, and ‘Moral Restraint’
• 7. The Church, Sodomy, and Same-Sex Desires
• 8. Scandals, the Public, and the Clergy
• 9. Sexual Narratives, Obscenity, and the Church
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Back Cover