Adelphopoiesis, or adelphopoiia from the Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of ἀδελφοποίησις, derived from ἀδελφός (adelphos) "brother" and ποιέω (poieō) "I make", literally "brother-making" is a ceremony practiced at one time by various Christian A Christian (pronounced /ˈkrɪstʃən/ ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, and the son of God. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of churches to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men). Similar blood brotherhood rituals were practiced by other cultures, including American Indians, ancient Chinese as well as Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. It was argued by the late gay activistJohn Boswell in his book Same-sex unions in pre-modern Europe, also published as The marriage of likeness, that the practice was to unite two persons in a marriage-like union. This is contradicted by the Greek Orthodox Church [1] where the practice is translated as "fraternization" and makes no mention or suggestion of anything sexual. The ceremony was mainly practised in Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to describe all Christian traditions which did not. Boswell gives text and translation for a number of versions of the "fraternization" ceremony in Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of, and translation only for a number of Slavonic The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia versions (Bratotvorenie).
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Thesis
The purpose of the adelphopoiesis ceremonies has been made controversial by Boswell. So it is worth noting that Boswell himself denies that adelphopoiesis should be properly translated as "homosexual marriage." He decries such a translation as "tendentiously slanted".[2] The Orthodox Church regards the ceremony as purely spiritual and indicating brotherhood.[1]
At the same time, Boswell claims that "brother-making" or "making of brothers" is an "anachronistically literal" translation and proposes "same-sex union" as the preferable rendering. Boswell's preference, however, is problematic. "Sex," for instance, while pointing to a seemingly "objective" characteristic of the participants involved in the rite, in fact draws attention to the physical condition or biological gender of the "brothers" – whereas the rites for adelphopoiesis explicitly highlight the spiritual nature of the union and deny that it is a "carnal" one.[3]
Boswell commented on the lack of any equivalent in the Western Latin Rite The Latin Rite or Latin Church is the majority rite or particular church within the Catholic Church, comprising roughly 80% of its membership. The Latin Rite is one of the 23 sui iuris particular churches within the Catholic Church. This particular church developed in Western Europe and North Africa, where, from classical antiquity to the of the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called; however, the British historian Alan Bray in his book The Friend, gives a Latin text and translation of a similar Latin Catholic Rite from Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on, entitled Ordo ad fratres faciendum, literally "Order for the making of brothers". Also see Allan Tulchin, "Same-Sex Couples Creating Households in Old Regime France: The Uses of the Affrèrement."[4] in the Journal of Modern History: September 2007, which article demonstrates the ceremony of affrèrement in France joined unrelated same-gender couples in life long unions which raised family, held property jointly, and were in all respects the same as or equivalent to marriages in terms of law and social custom, as shown by parish records.
Criticism of Boswell
The historicity of Boswell's interpretation of the ceremony is contested by the Greek Orthodox Church The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of the Orthodox Church, sharing a common cultural tradition, and whose liturgy is traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, which sees the rite as a rite of familial adoption, as the term adelphopoiesis literally means "brother making".[5] Other historians, including Robin Darling Young and Brent Shaw, have also criticized Boswell's methodology and conclusions.[6][7]
Archimandrite The title Archimandrite , primarily used in the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic churches, originally referred to a superior abbot whom a bishop appointed to supervise several 'ordinary' abbots (each styled hegumenos) and monasteries, or to the abbot of some especially great and important monastery. The title is also used as one purely of Ephrem Lash criticized Boswell's book in the February 1995 issue of Sourozh. According to Ephrem, Boswell mistranslates, misinterprets, and tendentiously organizes texts, and his "knowledge of Orthodox liturgiology is, in effect, non-existent."[8] With regard to Boswell's central claim to have found evidence for the use of wedding crowns in the rite for making brothers, Ephrem notes that what the relevant text says, "somewhat literally translated," is this: "It is inadmissible for a monk to receive [anadochos is a standard Greek word for 'godparent'] children from holy baptism, or to hold marriage crowns or to make brother-makings.[9] 150:124]" In other words, "monks are forbidden to do the following: 1. To act as godfathers at baptisms, 2. To act as supporters of bridal couples, 3. To enter into brotherly unions. These are, of course, the natural consequences of a monk's having given up all ties of earthly relationships."[10] Turning back to Boswell's thesis, Ephrem writes, "What does Boswell make of this? Here is his paraphrase of the text given above: 'monks must also not select boys at baptism and make such unions with them'. There is absolutely nothing in the text to suggest that the three prohibitions are linked in the way Boswell implies, nor that the 'children' are 'boys' – the Greek has the neuter, paidia. In short, this first piece of evidence for the use of crowns in the ceremony of brother-making is not evidence for anything, except Boswell's ignorance, not to mention the prurient suggestion that Byzantine monks went round selecting suitable boys at baptism so as to 'marry' them later on."[11]
Alternative views[12] are that this rite was used in many ways, such as the formation of permanent pacts between leaders of nations or between religious brothers. This was a replacement for "blood-brotherhood Blood brother can refer to one of two things: two males related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth who have formed a same-sex union and sworn loyalty to each other. This is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled together. The process usually provides a participant with a heightened" which was forbidden by the church at the time. Others such as Brent Shaw have maintained also that these unions were more akin to "blood-brotherhood" and had no sexual connotation.[7]
There also is a Medieval French 'affrèrement' ceremony: ordo ad fratres faciendum.[13][14] examined by Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in an article in the Journal of Modern History.[15][16]
See also
References
| Constructs such as ibid. Ibid. is the term used to provide an endnote or footnote citation or reference for a source that was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote. It is similar in meaning to idem (meaning something that has been mentioned previously; the same) abbreviated Id., which is commonly used in legal citation and loc. cit. Loc. cit. is a footnote or endnote term used to repeat the title and page number for a given author. Loc. cit. is used in place of ibid. when the reference is not only to the work immediately preceding, but also refers to the same page. Loc. cit. is also used instead of op. cit. when reference is made to a work previously cited and to the same are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (), or an abbreviated title. |
- ^ a b Fr. Evangelos K. Mantzouneas, Secretary of the Greek Synod Committee on Legal and Canonical Matters; English translation by Efthimios Mavrogeorgiadis, May 1994;Minor editing by Nicholas Zymaris. [http://syntheosis.org/Synod_Greece_1982.htm "Report on Adelphopoiesis 1982: “Fraternization from a Canonical Perspective” Athens 1982"]. http://syntheosis.org/Synod_Greece_1982.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
- ^ Same-sex Unions, p. 298-299.
- ^ hina genontai pneumatikoi adelphoi hyper tous sarkikous (they become spiritual brothers rather than fleshly [carnal] ones). Greek text in Boswell, Same-Sex Unions, p. 316, n. 198.
- ^ Allan Tulchin, "Same-Sex Couples Creating Households in Old Regime France: The Uses of the Affrèrement." Journal of Modern History: September 200
- ^ Reviewing Boswell
- ^ Young, Robin Darling (November 1994). "Gay Marriage: Reimagining Church History". First Things First Things was founded by the late Father Richard John Neuhaus, who was a prominent American Catholic thinker and essayist. After founding First Things he served as its editor-in-chief and frequently contributed to it. He started the journal after his connection with the Rockford Institute was severed 47: 43–48. http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9411/articles/darling.html. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
- ^ a b Shaw, Brent (July 1994). "A Groom of One's Own?". The New Republic The New Republic is an American magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 50,000. The editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz and the current editor is Franklin Foer. The magazine generally supports liberal social and social democratic economic policies, while otherwise taking a hawkish: 43–48. http://web.archive.org/web/20060507014622/http://www.learnedhand.com/shaw_boswell.htm. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
- ^ Archimandrite Ephrem, "Review of Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe", Sourozh, no. 59 (Feb. 1995): 50–55.
- ^ Patrologiae Graecae
- ^ Archimandrite Ephrem, "Review of Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe", p. 52.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ http://www.eskimo.com/~nickz/qrd-eastern_orthodox/adelphopoiia.some-responses and http://www.melkite.org/Questions/M-4.htm
- ^ http://www.titipu.demon.co.uk/samesexunions/adelphopoiesis.htm
- ^ http://www.nowpublic.com/study-medieval-gay-marriages
- ^ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823110231.htm
- ^ Allan Tulchin, "Same-Sex Couples Creating Households in Old Regime France: The Uses of the Affrèrement." Journal of Modern History: September 2007.
External links
- Gay Marriage: Reimagining Church History, First Things
Categories: Christian behaviour and experience | History of Eastern Christianity | LGBT history prior to the 19th century | Christian terms Categories: Religious terminology | Christian popular culture | Christian theology
