Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire

Abstract

Engaging with Foucault’s ideas on sexuality, this book demonstrates how conservative organizations and the Supreme Court have misunderstood Christian beliefs on marriage and the family. It challenges the long-held assumption that American values are based on “Judeo-Christian” norms, by comparing ancient Christian discourses on marriage and sexuality with contemporary ones, maintaining that modern family values owe more to Roman Imperial beliefs than to the Bible. Ultimately, this book undermines the conservative ideology of the family, starting from the position that early Christianity, in its emphasis on celibacy and denunciation of marriage, was in opposition to procreation, the ideological norm in the Greco-Roman world.