A History of Celibacy: Experiments Through the Ages

9780306810411

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Elizabeth Abbott

Genre Self Improvement

Format Paperback

Dimensions 5.46 (w) x 8.58 (h) x 1.21 (d)

Pages 496

Publisher Da Capo Press

Publication Date May 2001

ISBN 9780306810411

Book ISBN 10 0306810417

About Book

Celibacy is a worldwide practice that is often adopted, rarely discussed. Now, in Elizabeth Abbott's fascinating and wide-ranging history, it is examined in all its various forms: shaping religious lives, conditioning athletes and shamans, surfacing in classical poetry and camp literature, resonating in the voices of castrati, and permeating ancient mythology. Found in every society of the past, practiced by both the anonymous and the legendary (St. Catherine, Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, Elizabeth I, Gandhi), celibacy has as many stories as adherents, and Abbott weaves them into a provocative, seamless tapestry that brings history alive.

Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Most readers think that they already know all too much about celibacy. But Elizabeth Abbott knows otherwise. Her stimulating history of celibacy corrects popular misconceptions about just saying no. Taking a self-controlled stroll down the centuries, this Trinity College dean shows us that people throughout history have decided for diverse reasons that sexual abstinence is the best policy. Among those she names as conscientiously chaste are Sir Isaac Newton and Joan of Arc. Perhaps Abbott's most refreshing argument, though, is her vigorous rebuke of the widely held notion that celibacy is essentially a religious concept. Citing ancient Roman vestal virgins, modern terrorists, and semen-conserving star athletes, she proves that people refrain from sex for all kinds of reasons; many of them quite secular.

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