On the Jesuit-Maronite Provenance of Lebanon's Criminalization of Homosexuality
Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, effectively, criminalizes homosexual practices. Most commentators have claimed that its existence in modern Lebanon is a "colonial relic," specifically of the French Mandate, 1920-1946. But since 1791, French penal codes have not criminalized same-se...
| Published in: | Journal of law and religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 2020, Volume: 35, Issue: 3, Pages: 380-406 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Lebanon
/ Criminal law
/ Homosexuality
/ Criminalization
/ Jesuits
/ Maroniten
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| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KBL Near East and North Africa KCA Monasticism; religious orders XA Law |
| Further subjects: | B
Lebanon
B Maronite B Jesuit B Aquinas B Article 534 B Sectarianism B conviviendum B same-sex relations B France B Confessionalism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, effectively, criminalizes homosexual practices. Most commentators have claimed that its existence in modern Lebanon is a "colonial relic," specifically of the French Mandate, 1920-1946. But since 1791, French penal codes have not criminalized same-sex relations. I argue, instead, that Article 534 was the product of native religious, legal, and moral thinking among the Maronites, reinforced by the Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology taught in Lebanon by the Jesuit missions. Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology classified same-sex relations as worthy of condemnation as "unnatural acts" - the same language used in Article 534. Therefore, as a product of Lebanese political and religious sectarianism, Article 534 is a specific case of a congenial collaboration of Jesuit moral theology and a conservative Maronite ethical and legal koine. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/jlr.2019.42 |