Power and the Reproduction of History: Twentieth-Century Histories of Abortion in the Ancient Mediterranean World
This essay explores issues of identity and power in twentieth-century scholarship on abortion in the ancient Mediterranean world. I consider how two scholars, John T. Noonan, Jr. and Beverly Wildung Harrison, approach the same ancient Christian sources from different theoretical frameworks: narrativ...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2022
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| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 34, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 120-139 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Tertullianus, Quintus Septimius Florens 150-230, De anima
/ Hippolytus, Romanus -235, Refutatio omnium haeresium
/ Noonan, John T., Jr. 1926-2017
/ Harrison, Beverly Wildung 1932-2012
/ Abortion
/ Historiography
/ Authority
/ Power
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| IxTheo Classification: | CF Christianity and Science CH Christianity and Society KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NCF Sexual ethics NCH Medical ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Historiography
B Michel-Rolph Trouillot B Feminist ethics B Abortion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This essay explores issues of identity and power in twentieth-century scholarship on abortion in the ancient Mediterranean world. I consider how two scholars, John T. Noonan, Jr. and Beverly Wildung Harrison, approach the same ancient Christian sources from different theoretical frameworks: narrative historiography and feminist liberation ethics, respectively. While Noonan’s historical narrative on ancient Christian opposition to abortion demonstrates the “moral supremacy” of Christianity, Harrison’s historical counternarrative reads the ancient sources as borne out of the “sex-negativism” of a minority of ancient Christians. In this analysis I focus on the ways in which the production of history manufactures power by means of authority and legitimacy, particularly for each scholar’s own religious identity and views on the morality of abortion in America. In conclusion, I consider the interests of the respective authors in the production of these histories. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341535 |