John Boswell
Born	John Eastburn Boswell (1947-03-20)March 20, 1947 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	December 24, 1994(1994-12-24) (aged 47) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Other names	Jeb Boswell
Partner	Jerone Hart (1970–1994)
Academic background
Education	College of William & Mary (BA) Harvard University (PhD)
Thesis	Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century (1975)
Academic advisors	Giles Constable Jocelyn Hillgarth [ca]
Academic work
Discipline	History philology
Institutions	Yale University
Doctoral students	Robin Stacey,Ruth Mazo Karras
Main interests	Christianity and homosexuality
Notable works	Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980) Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (1994)
Influenced	Ralph Hexter

John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947 – December 24, 1994) was an American historian and a full professor atYale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue ofreligion and homosexuality, specificallyChristianity and homosexuality. Much of his work addressed the history of marginalized groups, particularly in the context of religion and sexuality.

His first book,The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century, appeared in 1977. In 1994, Boswell's fourth book,Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, was published. He died that same year fromAIDS-related complications.

Boswell was born on March 20, 1947, inBoston,Massachusetts, the son of Colonel Henry Boswell Jr. and Catharine Eastburn Boswell. He earned hisBA at theCollege of William & Mary,^[1] and his PhD atHarvard University before being hired to teach atYale University.

A medievalphilologist, Boswell spoke or read several Scandinavian languages,Old Icelandic, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, early and modern Russian,Old Church Slavonic,Armenian,Persian, Arabic, Hebrew,Syriac, andAkkadian.^[1][2] Boswell received his doctorate in 1975 and joined theYale University history faculty, where his colleagues includedJohn Morton Blum,David Brion Davis,Jaroslav Pelikan,Peter Gay,Hanna Holborn Gray,Michael Howard,Donald Kagan,Howard R. Lamar,Jonathan Spence,Robin Winks,William Cronon, andEdmund Morgan. Boswell was made professor in 1982, and A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History in 1990.^[1]

The Royal Treasure (1977) is a detailed historical study of theMudéjarMuslims inAragon in the 14th century.

External videos
"Jews, Gay People, and Bicycle Riders" – a public lecture by Boswell at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison on 25 April 1986, videotaped for "Nothing to Hide," a weekly LGBTQ program on WYOU Community TV

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980) is a work which, according toGeorge Chauncey et al. (1989), "offered a revolutionary interpretation of the Western tradition, arguing that the Roman Catholic Church had not condemned gay people throughout its history, but rather, at least until the twelfth century, had alternately evinced no special concern about homosexuality or actually celebrated love between men." The book won aNational Book Award^[3][a] and theStonewall Book Award in 1981, but Boswell's thesis was criticized byWarren Johansson,Wayne R. Dynes, andJohn Lauritsen, who believed that he had attempted to whitewash the historic crimes of the Christian Church against gay men.^[4]

The Kindness of Strangers: Child Abandonment in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance (1988) is a scholarly study of the widespread practice of abandoning unwanted children and the means by which society tries to care for them. The title, as Boswell states in the Introduction, is inspired by a puzzling phrase Boswell had found in a number of documents:aliena misericordia, which might at first seem to mean "a strange kindness", is better translated "the kindness of strangers," echoing the line "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" fromA Streetcar Named Desire byTennessee Williams.

The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (New York: Villard, 1994) argues that theadelphopoiia liturgy was evidence that the attitude of theChristian church towards homosexuality has changed over time, and that earlyChristians did on occasion accept same-sex relationships.^[5]

Rites of so-called "same-sex union" (Boswell's proposed translation) occur in ancient prayer-books of both the western and eastern churches. They are rites ofadelphopoiesis, literallyGreek for the making of brothers. Boswell stated that these should be regarded as sexual unions similar to marriages. Boswell made many detailed translations of these rites inSame-Sex Unions, and stated that one massgay wedding occurred only a couple of centuries ago in theArchbasilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral seat of thePope as Bishop of Rome. This aspect of Boswell's text has drawn significant scholarly debate, with critics contending that these rites represented adoption or fraternity rather than sexual unions.^[6][7][8] Boswell pointed out such evidence as anicon of twosaints,Sergius and Bacchus (at St. Catherine's onMount Sinai), and drawings, such as one he interprets as depicting the wedding feast ofEmperor Basil I to his "partner", John. Boswell seesJesus as fulfilling the role of the "pronubus" or in modern parallel, best man.^[9]

Boswell's methodology and conclusions have been disputed by many historians.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]} James Brundage, professor of history and law at the University of Kansas, observed that "the mainstream reaction was that he raised some interesting questions, but hadn't proved his case."^[1]

The Irish historian and journalistJim Duffy, in his "Rite and Reason" column inThe Irish Times, praised Boswell's work.^[17] Welsh LGBT historianNorena Shopland, inForbidden Lives, examines a number of translations ofGerald of Wales's extract from the third book ofTopographia Hiberniae, "A proof of the iniquity (of the Irish) and a novel form of marriage". Shopland shows how all translations currently being used were originally made before homosexuality was legal, and so reflect those times. She includes evidence supporting Boswell's translation of "marriage" and not, as others claim "a treaty".^[18]

Boswell was a Roman Catholic, having converted from theEpiscopal Church of his upbringing at the age of 15. He was a practicing Roman Catholic throughout his life, maintaining his faith while expressing disagreement with the Church's teachings on homosexuality. Although he was orthodox in most of his beliefs, he strongly disagreed with his church's stated opposition to homosexual behavior and relationships. He was partnered with Jerone Hart for some twenty years until his death. Hart and Boswell are buried together atGrove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut.^[19][20]

In "Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories",^[21] Boswell compares theconstructionist–essentialist positions to therealist–nominalist dichotomy. He also lists three types of sexualtaxonomies:

• All or most humans are polymorphously sexual... external accidents, such as socio-cultural pressure, legal sanctions, religious beliefs, historical or personal circumstances determine the actual expression of each person's sexual feelings.
• Two or more sexual categories, usually, but not always based on sexual object choice.
• One type of sexual response [is] normal... all other variants abnormal.

Boswell died of complications fromAIDS in the Yale infirmary^[22] in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 24, 1994, aged 47.

^{[neutrality isdisputed]}

• During the late 1980s, the influence ofMichel Foucault's writings led to the emergence of asocial constructivist view of human sexuality which emphasised the historical and cultural specificity of sexual identities such as 'heterosexual' and 'homosexual'. Despite Boswell's friendly relations with Foucault, he remained adamantly opposed to the French theorist's views, which he characterised as a reemergence of medievalnominalism, and defended his own strikingessentialism in the face of changing academic fashions.
• Since his death, Boswell's work has been critiqued by some medievalists and queer theorists, who argue that applying modern concepts of sexuality to pre-modern societies risks anachronism.^[23][24]
• Several other scholars, includingTerry Castle,Ruth Vanita, andRictor Norton, have followed in Boswell's footsteps, building up the field oflesbian andgay studies (as distinct fromqueer theory), and proposing that categorizations of humans by sexual predilection much predate the 19th century (where Foucault and his followers place it), both in the West (as inPlato'sSymposium) and in other cultures (e.g.,India).^[25]
• In 2006, Boswell was named with online resources as an LGBT History Month Icon.^[26]
• TheCollege of William & Mary announced in late April 2021 that an academic building would be renamed in Boswell's honor.^[27] Boswell Hall includes the departments of Gender, Sexuality, & Women's Studies and Sociology. Additionally, William & Mary's LGBTQ+ interdisciplinary scholarship program is named in his honor.

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• The Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century (1977)–Online
• Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century (1980) — winner of the National Book Award,^[3][a]ISBN 978-0226067117
• Rediscovering Gay History: Archetypes of Gay Love in Christian History (1982)
• The Kindness of Strangers: The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance (1989)
• Homosexuality in the Priesthood and the Religious Life (1991) (co-author)
• Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (1994), Villard Books,ISBN 0-679-43228-0

• Adelphopoiesis
• The Bible and homosexuality
• Alan Bray
• Queer studies
• Queer theology

• Boswell, John (1989, 1982)."Revolutions, Universals, and Sexual Categories",Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past, Chauncey et al., eds. New York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books.ISBN 0-452-01067-5.
• Chauncey et al., eds (1989). "Introduction",Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past (1990), New York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books.ISBN 0-452-01067-5.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJohn Boswell.

• PEOPLE WITH A HISTORY: John Boswell
• The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (7th Century)
• Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century
• YAMP: John BoswellArchived 2019-01-10 at theWayback Machine
• John Boswell Papers (MS 1974). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

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