Lower than the Angels

A History of Sex and Christianity

Diarmaid MacCulloch

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Allen Lane
03 December 2024

Religion & beliefs; History of religion; Christian Churches & denominations; Christian aspects of sexuality, gender & relationships; Sexual behaviour; Religious & theocratic ideologies

A major new assessment of one of the most controversial topics in history

The Bible observes that God made humanity 'for a while a little lower than the angels'.

If humans are that close to angels, does the difference lie in human sexuality and what we do with it?

Much of the political contention and division in societies across the world centres on sexual topics, and one-third of the global population is Christian in background or outlook. In a single lifetime, Christianity or historically Christian societies have witnessed one of the most extraordinary about-turns in attitudes to sex and gender in human history. There have followed revolutions in the place of women in society, a new place for same-sex love amid the spectrum of human emotions, and a public exploration of gender and trans identity. For many the new situation has brought exciting liberation - for others, fury and fear.

Lower Than the Angels seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding by telling the 2,000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and the family, with noises off from their sacred texts. The message of Lower than the Angels is simple, necessary and timely - to pay attention to the sheer glorious complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity. The reader can decide from the story told here whether there is a single Christian theology of sex, or many contending voices in a symphony that is not at all complete. Oxford's Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church introduces an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity's deepest desires, fears and hopes.

By: Diarmaid MacCulloch
Imprint: Allen Lane
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 161mm, Spine: 43mm
Weight: 1.185kg
ISBN: 9780241400937
ISBN 10: 0241400937
Pages: 688
Publication Date: 03 December 2024
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, and Fellow of St Cross College and of Campion Hall. His Thomas Cranmer (1996) won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize; Reformation- Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 (2004) won the Wolfson Prize and the British Academy Prize. A History of Christianity (2010), which was adapted into a six-part BBC television series, was awarded the Cundill and Hessel-Tiltman Prizes. He was knighted in 2012 and was awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2022.

Reviews for Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity

Magisterial ... In Lower than the Angels, Diarmaid MacCulloch offers a history of sex and Christianity that is both confronting and reassuring in its detail and complexity, taking biblical scholarship and theological development seriously at the same time as insisting on the historian’s independence. A thrilling read. -- Lucy Winkett * Financial Times * A compelling and encyclopedic survey of how Christianity makes sense of sexual desire. MacCulloch is an ideal guide in tracing this story... [he] writes, as always, with such liveliness and energy that the reader hardly notices the length of the book or the comprehensiveness of its field of reference. -- Rowan Williams * Sunday Telegraph * Incendiary ... a comprehensive and richly entertaining history of the ways in which, for 3,000 years, the church has tied itself in knots over sex (and love and marriage). [It] offers a fabulous catalogue of the babel of voices in the Bible and the ways that they have been interpreted, invariably for political purposes, down the centuries. -- Tim Adams * Observer * Compendious * Economist *