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''This article focuses on the history of homosexuality and Christianity from the beginnings of the Church through the mid 1900s. For current teachings of Christian Churches on homosexuality see Homosexuality and Christianity.'' Christian leaders have written about homosexual male-male sexual activities since the first decades of Christianity; female-female sexual behaviour was essentially ignored.〔Spong, J.S. 2005. The Sins of Scripture. Harper Collins ISBN 0-06-076205-5〕 Throughout the majority of Christian history most theologians and Christian denominations have viewed homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. However, in the past century some prominent theologians and Christian religious groups have espoused a wide variety of beliefs and practices towards homosexuals, including the establishment of some 'open and accepting' congregations that actively support LGBT members. == Early Christianity == (詳細はscare quotes because they are anachronistic when employed with reference to the linguistic usages of classical antiquity. See the comments by Craig A. Williams in his ''Roman Homosexuality'' (Oxford, 1999), p. 6, and D. S. Bailey's comments in ''Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition'' (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1955), p. x: "Strictly speaking, the Bible and Christian tradition know nothing of ''homosexuality''; both are concerned solely with the commission of homosexual ''acts'' – hence the title of this study is loosely, though conventionally, worded."〕 had existed among certain groups, with some degree of social acceptance in ancient Rome and ancient Greece (e.g. the pederastic relationship of an adult Greek male with a Greek youth, or of a Roman citizen with a slave). It is believed by some that St. Paul was only addressing such practices in Romans 1: 26–27, while others usually see these verses as condemning all forms of homoeroticism. Plutarch's ''Erotikos'' (Dialogue on Love) argues that He also says 〔Plutarch, "Eroticus" in ''Selected Essays and Dialogues'' (Oxford, 1993), p. 279.〕. The Judaic prohibitions found in ''Leviticus'' 18:22 (see also Leviticus 18) and 20:13 address the issue of sex between two men. The latter verse (20:13) says: 'And if a man also lies with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them." In his fourth homily on Romans, St. John Chrysostom argued in the fourth century that homosexual acts are worse than murder and so degrading that they constitute a kind of punishment in itself, and that enjoyment of such acts actually makes them worse, "for suppose I were to see a person running naked, with his body all besmeared with mire, and yet not covering himself, but exulting in it, I should not rejoice with him, but should rather bewail that he did not even perceive that he was doing shamefully." He also said: However, he emphasizes, in P.G. 60:417, col. 1, near bottom of the column,that he (and Paul) is not referring to two men who are in love with one another, but who burn in their appetite for each other. He writes, clarifying Paul's position in Romans 1, Historian John Boswell contends that adelphopoiesis, a Christian rite for uniting two persons of the same sex as "spiritual brothers/sisters", amounted to an approved outlet for romantic and indeed sexual love between couples of the same sex. Boswell also drew attention to Saints Sergius and Bacchus, whose icon depicts the two standing together with Jesus between or behind them, a position he identifies with a pronubus or "best man". Critics of Boswell's views have argued that the union created was more like blood brotherhood; and that this icon is a typical example of an icon depicting two saints who were martyred together, with the usual image of Christ that appears on many religious icons, and therefore that there is no indication that it depicts a "wedding". But Saints Sergius and Bacchus were both referred to as ''erastai'' in ancient Greek manuscripts, the same word used to describe lovers (Boswell). The 16th Canon of the Council of Ancyra (314) prescribed a penance of at least twenty years' duration for those "who have done the irrational" (''alogeuesthai''). At the time this was written, it referred to bestiality, not homosexuality. However, later Latin translations translated it to include both.〔Sara Parvis, ''Marcellus of Ancyra and the Last Years of the Arian Controversy'' (Oxford, 2006), pp. 19, 25–27. Parvis notes that "although the Latin versions all hedged their bets and translated the word in both senses (and bestiality ), the earliest Syriac simply translates it with the phrase "have intercourse with animals" (p.27).〕 In the year 342, the Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans decreed the death penalty for any male who "marries (man ) as a woman... (situation in which ) gender has lost its place".〔Theodosian Code 9.7.3: ''"When a man marries (man ) as a woman offering herself to men (quum vir nubit in feminam viris porrecturam), what can he be seeking, where gender has lost its place; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed to another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment.'' Some scholars (Dalla, Cantarella, and Treggiari) note that the "marriage" in question may be a metaphor for the passive, or "feminine" role in sex rather than a literal reference to a same-sex parody of marriage. Williams, in his ''Roman Homosexuality'' (p. 246), agrees but insists that a literal reading is equally plausible.〕 In the year 390, the Christian emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius denounced males "acting the part of a woman", condemning those who were guilty of such acts to be publicly burned.〔(Theodosian Code 9.7.6): All persons who have the shameful custom of condemning a man's body, acting the part of a woman's to the sufferance of alien sex (for they appear not to be different from women), shall expiate a crime of this kind in avenging flames in the sight of the people.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Christianity and homosexuality」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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