New Books Network Derek Krueger "Monastic Desires: Homoeroticism, Homophobia, and the Love of God in Medieval Constantinople" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Mar 30, 2026
Derek Krueger, emeritus UNC Greensboro scholar of Byzantine Christianity and monasticism. He explores Simeon the New Theologian’s strikingly homoerotic language of divine union. Short scenes cover monastic disciplining of desire, Byzantine homophobia, hymn readings about the divinized body, and how monasteries shaped queer devotional life.
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Simeon's Hymns Are Explicitly Sensual
- Hymn 16 explicitly merges Christian mystical language with sensual, bodily motifs: God 'kisses all of me' and 'shining upon all the parts of my body'.
- Krueger highlights translators sometimes omit or sanitize these passages despite their formative role for monks.
Homophobia Was A Patchwork Of Sources
- Byzantine homophobia was an assemblage: biblical texts, civil and canon law, monastic rules, and eschatological fears combined without coherent logic.
- Krueger traces threads from Sodom, Leviticus, Paul, and Justinian-era laws shaping monastic anxiety.
Topping Became Targeted In Law And Rhetoric
- By the sixth century discourse shifted to criminalizing the penetrating partner, culminating in Justinian's laws against men who penetrate men.
- Krueger links theological rhetoric and legal penalties to evolving stigma dynamics in Byzantine sources.
