Reviews for The body and society

The average rating for The body and society based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-15 00:00:00 Jacqueline Hedrick I read this book a few years ago and just realized that I never reviewed it. Brown is everything one could desire from a scholar of Mediterranean culture in the several centuries after Christ. He founded the field of Late Antique studies as such, and this book is one of the key contributions he made earlier in his career. (He's still writing magnificent books at a staggering rate from his retirement.) It's probably one of the most insightful, interesting, and illuminating texts I've read on early Christianity. It changed the way I think about gender and reproduction in the early Christian church. If you're trying to understand ancient ideas about the meaning of sexual difference and sexual expression, this book is absolutely necessary. Time spent in the presence of a wise and immensely learned scholar is a rare treasure; this book represents such an opportunity.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-02-01 00:00:00 Lawrence Mize Jr One reader commented that Brown's work here is 'biased and sloppy,' and while that may be their take, I respectfully disagree. For those who don't know who Brown is, he is usually known as the imminent living expert on all things Augustine. Nice work if you can get it; while that's a neat thing to put on a business card, very few people can make a living tossing such a title around. Brown is no slouch, and I think he is a fair and judicious expert on Augustine. Especially being a female, I must posit that while Augustine is rightly known as one of the most important thinkers Christianity has ever known, he brought some of his own struggles to his work which have had lasting implications. This is also true of Jerome, of Tertullian, and of a handful of the earliest Church Fathers, from 200-400 AD, which is the time that Brown here gives treatment to. Because of the Platononism that was 'in the air' with Manichees and Gnostic dualism, the things which our Church Fathers said have had some lasting implications which any minister or learned laity would do well to explore. I think Brown's work is an excellent work in which to do just that.