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John Boswell Documentary  [message #78620] Sat, 04 November 2023 21:07 Go to next message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

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Back in January I did a post about an excellent article on John Boswell published in Medium. It was a very good summary of his work, and I just discovered an excellent documentary of his life and work that goes into much more detail. So, when you've got two free hours.... it's worth the watch!

What is important to understand besides the fact that he was a wonderful person, absolutely amazing scholar (17 languages, anyone?) and died at a tragically young age, is that his two incredibly thorough texts "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality" (1980) and "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe" (1995) not only led to him being referred to as The Historian of Gays and Lesbians in Christianity, but laid the solid academic foundation upon which the gay rights movement could be built and provided irrefutable ammunition to challenge the teachings of the Christian churches on LGB subjects. All of which are different this side of the late Middle Ages and they were for the first thirteen hundred years or so.

https://forum.iomfats.org/?t=getfile&id=5343&private=0

This is a documentary of the man and his life, but also explicates his academic work and explores the major themes and teachings of both books. Reading the books is a heavy lift, as they're quite academic. The film, however, is engaging and conveys a very good overview of the contents. You can link to the YouTube video here.

[Updated on: Sat, 04 November 2023 21:08]



Bensiamin
Re: John Boswell Documentary  [message #78625 is a reply to message #78620] Mon, 06 November 2023 18:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
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It helps a lot that he is easy on the eye, and has a twinkle in his!


Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: John Boswell Documentary  [message #78635 is a reply to message #78625] Wed, 08 November 2023 18:13 Go to previous message
Bensiamin is currently offline  Bensiamin

Likes it here
Location: USA
Registered: July 2019
Messages: 372



It does indeed, Tim. And as one person says in the video, he had a winsome smile!

It's a challenge to reconcile that with the erudition! 17 languages after all!


Bensiamin
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