Zölibat in der frühen Kirche: Die Anfänge einer Enthaltsamkeitspflicht für Kleriker in Ost und West by Stefan Heid (review)

BOOK REVIEWS523 mary sources in their own right, from which, with a learned and sensitive eye, she teases out important insights. The philosophical traditions of Platonism and Aristotelianism decisively shaped medieval scholastic consideration ofthe body; and, with suitably gracious acknowledgment of the debt we all owe to "the great French and German historians of scholasticism" (p. 247), she subjects the scholastic texts to a fresh and exciting reinterpretation. From her earlier books we would expect to see references to medieval women visionaries and mystics, especially Hildegard of Bingen (pp. 157-163), Marguerite of Oingt (pp. 334337 ), and Mechtild ofMagdeburg (pp. 337-34l);but she has in many ways gone well beyond her earlier expositions by relating these thinkers and writers to medieval debates over the body and its resurrection. Both in these sections about medieval women and throughout the book, Professor Bynum demonstrates her thorough acquaintance with both the theory and the practice of contemporary literary and historical methodology, with its distinctive vocabulary :"gender and class essentialism" and "social hierarchy" (pp. 90-91, 2l4);"the other" (pp. 110, 214-215, 216, etc.);"classes and hierarchies in the hereafter" (p. 296 n. 64); "ideological repression" (p. 321). But she demonstrates even more strikingly her total lack of subservience to its trendiness, even suggesting that"it seems likely that some heretics actually held at least some of the opinions attributed to them by their orthodox opponents" (p. 219), and that some contemporary scholars "make a rather uncritical use of Foucault" (p. 325 n. 23). There may be a relevant article or a dissertation somewhere that Caroline Bynum has not read, but it would be difficult to say what it is. In her primary sources, seemingly "bizarre" (p. 31) or "to modern tastes offensive" (p. 316) references to the parts of the body and to bodily functions—all the bodily functions —provide her with pertinent material, because, as she suggests, "none of this is irrelevant to resurrection" (p. 333). And none of her discussions of the resurrection of the body is irrelevant to our better understanding of the entire pattern of systems ofbelief and thought in the patristic period and especially in the High Middle Ages. Almost apologetically, she describes her enterprise as "in one sense rather old-fashioned intellectual history" (p. xvi). If it is, this is a great way to be "old-fashioned," and all of us are profoundly in her debt. Jaroslav Pelikan Yale University Ancient Zölibat in derfrühen Kirche: Die Anfänge einer Enthaltsamkeitspflichtfür Kleriker in Ost und West. By Stefan Heid. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh . 1997. Pp.339. DM 39-80.) Heid contextualizes the theme of clerical celibacy within the institutionalization of the Church and the Early Christian understanding of sexuality. Tb a lesser extent, he deals with the personalities on the various sides of the ques- 524book reviews tion. He claims a contemporary significance for the study: "Ohne die frühe Kirche gab es heute keinen Zölibat" (p. 9), even though mandatory celibacy emerged from the twelfth-century Papstkirche (an unfortunate and inaccurate term). After a brief review of some recent literature, Heid begins his study with the New Testament and follows it toJustinian and the Council in Trullo (690) in the East and the fifth-century popes in the West. The last chapter considers the possible Grundsätzliches zum Konsens zwischen östlicher und westlicher Zölibatsdisziplin . This reviewer found it refreshing to see an ecumenical proposal based upon solid historical research rather than just good will. The heart of the book lies in the examination of the historical data. Separate chapters deal with the Bible, the second century to Tertullian (T220), the third century to Nicaea (325); two chapters comprising 40% of the text deal with East and West in the fourth and fifth centuries. Heid has rounded up all the usual suspects (Jerome,Augustine), but he also looks at Syriac literature, canons ofregional councils, and what he calls indirekte Bestätigungen, such as the duties of Klerikerfrauen. Many writers receive only one or two pages, often because they said little on the topic or little survives of what they said. While this material makes this survey more complete, Heid could have...