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Book Review
A History of Celibacy. By ELIZABETH ABBOTT. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2001. 496 pp. $17.50 (paper).
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The author of this entertaining and virtually exhaustive treatment of celibacy in world history is, appropriately, both a journalist and a historian. |
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The scope of the book is vast, perhaps far too vast, for a single volume. She covers celibacy and its counterpart, sexuality, in such widely disparate areas and times as ancient Greece, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American religions, and Jainism. She focuses most of her attention on early, medieval, and contemporary Christianity. Individuals such as Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Florence Nightingale, Leonardo da Vinci, and Isaac Newton, to name only a few, are given at least a few paragraphs each. The appearance of celibacy in world literature is taken up (though here she tends to restrict herself to European works). And she does a good job of delineating the underlying philosophies of celibacy both in the past as well as today. Her final chapter is on the new celibacy and contains a sustained attack on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on sexuality in general. |
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Certainly, the book will become a reference for persons seeking examples of and rationales for celibacy throughout the world and in its many religious traditions. Abbott has read widely and demonstrates an impressive knowledge of a subject that few have dealt with in so expansive a way. The breadth is awesome, but it necessarily sacrifices at times depth of analysis and sensitivity to historical context. |
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