Loader William - Sexuality in the New Testament: Understanding the key texts

Professor William Loader, FAHA, of Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, is a Professorial Research Fellow of the Australian Research Council engaged in research on attitudes towards sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Graeco-Roman era. His recent publications include The Dead Sea Scrolls on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in Sectarian and Related Literature at Qumran (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009); Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in the Early Enoch Literature, the Aramaic Levi Document, and the Book of Jubilees (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007); The New Testament with Imagination: A Fresh Approach to its Writings and Themes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007); Sexuality and the Jesus Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005); Septuagint, Sexuality, and the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004); and The Pseudepigrapha on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in Apocalypses, Testaments, Legends, Wisdom, and Related Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming).

First published in Great Britain in 2010

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

Copyright William Loader 2010

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SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the external website and email addresses included in this book are correct and up to date at the time of going to press. The author and publisher are not responsible for the content, quality or continuing accessibility of the sites.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780281058846

E-ISBN 9780281065592

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset and eBook by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

Contents

This book could not have come into being without the support of significant institutions and people. It distils in part some of the research I have been undertaking as a Professorial Fellow of the Australian Research Council between 2005 and 2010. The detailed research findings have been published progressively over those years and this books Bibliography lists all the titles thus far. My home institution, Murdoch University, has provided effective and supportive infrastructure, not least the marvels of the modern inter-library loan facility which conquers the tyranny of distance and the isolation of living in one of the worlds most remote cities, Perth, Western Australia. I am also grateful to many Uniting Church and Anglican congregations, groups and workshop participants across Australia and New Zealand, who have provided me with the opportunity both to offer input and to listen to questions and concerns.

There have also been special people who have perused the manuscript at various stages: John Dunnill and Ibolya Balla of Murdoch University on the first draft, and Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University on the penultimate draft, providing a series of comments and questions which helped me shape the final product. Putting so much into a book of small compass has tested my judgement and my patience with myself at omitting so much. At least I can point readers to the more extensive volumes for detailed discussion.

Finally I want to thank the editorial staff of SPCK, Rebecca Mulhearn, Philip Law and Rima Devereaux, and also Jon Berquist of Westminster John Knox, for their patience, efficiency and support. Together we make available a book that will hopefully both promote knowledge and enhance understanding of issues surrounding sexuality, part of human life which inevitably engages us all and where we best find meaning in openness, flexibility and mutual respect.