Intelligence Squared

Sex, Gender and Christianity: A 3,000 Year History, with Diarmaid MacCulloch and Mary Beard (Part One)

March 16, 2026

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  • There is no single "Christian view of sex"; rather, there are multiple, evolving views shaped by 3,000 years of engagement with Jewish and Hellenistic traditions. 
  • Early Christian marriage was not a church affair, lacking formal church weddings until the 12th century in the Western Church, and Jesus's primary pronouncements focused on a radical prohibition of divorce and insistence on monogamy, while he said nothing about homosexuality. 
  • The Christian practice of celibacy and monasticism, which became a major feature of the religion, appears to have been imported from Eastern traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism via Syrian traders in the second century. 

Segments

Introduction and Context Setting
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(00:01:02)
  • Key Takeaway: The episode addresses 3,000 years of Christian history regarding sex and gender to inform modern debates.
  • Summary: The episode features Diarmaid MacCulloch and Mary Beard discussing the history of Christianity’s influence on sex and gender. This history is essential for understanding contemporary debates on women’s roles, same-sex relationships, and gender identity. The discussion covers 3,000 years of Jewish and Christian encounters with these topics.
MacCulloch’s Book Scope
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(00:05:07)
  • Key Takeaway: MacCulloch’s book covers 3,000 years chronologically, starting with Greek, Roman, and Jewish contexts before Jesus, and geographically spanning from the Near East to China.
  • Summary: The book, Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, covers 3,000 years, beginning with pre-Christian Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions. It traces Christian thought on sex globally, extending to the present day. The author aims to provide materials for sensible discussion about sex by unpacking this long history.
Judaic and Hellenistic Influences
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(00:07:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Early Christian views on sex were shaped by two contrasting theological backgrounds: the interventionist Hebrew God and the perfection-focused Greek philosophical God.
  • Summary: Christianity did not emerge in a vacuum, engaging with both Hellenistic tradition and Judaic tradition. The Hebrew scripture presents an interventionist God, while Greek philosophy, like Plato, posited a perfect, unchanging God. Christianity spent centuries arguing how Jesus could embody both these opposing divine concepts.
Biblical Text Complexity
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(00:10:56)
  • Key Takeaway: The New Testament is written in marketplace Greek, a layer removed from Jesus’s Aramaic, highlighting the complexity of deriving singular Christian views from the text.
  • Summary: Relying solely on the Bible ignores the layers of interpretation and language involved in the texts. The New Testament was written in a form of Greek, not the Aramaic Jesus would have spoken. This linguistic distance adds to the diversity inherent in Christian views on sex, family, and marriage.
No Singular Christian View
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(00:12:57)
  • Key Takeaway: The fundamental takeaway is that there is no singular, unified “Christian view of sex”; views change across centuries and continents.
  • Summary: Christian leaders often wrongly assert a singular Christian view of sex, but multiple views exist that shift over time and geography. This complexity must be understood before making sensible statements about the topic. Furthermore, Christianity has historically been more negative about sexual activity than religions like Islam or Hinduism.
Historical Roots of Marriage
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(00:21:09)
  • Key Takeaway: The modern anxiety surrounding church weddings is historically unfounded, as early Christians did not marry in church; marriage was a private, contractual affair.
  • Summary: The Church of England is currently struggling with debates over same-sex marriage, yet the historical roots of church weddings are recent. For the first five centuries, no one habitually married in church; this only became common in the West by the 12th century. Early Christian marriage followed Greco-Roman customs, involving a party and a declaration of intent, as exemplified by the wedding at Cana.
Jesus’s Direct Teachings on Marriage
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(00:26:16)
  • Key Takeaway: Jesus explicitly forbade divorce and mandated marriage between one man and one woman for life, which was counter-cultural to both contemporary Jewish and Roman norms.
  • Summary: Jesus’s reported teachings on marriage included a strict prohibition on divorce, which early Christians struggled with, leading to modifications in the Gospels and later disagreements among denominations. He also advocated for lifelong monogamy, which contrasted with the easy divorce in Judaism and the polygyny permitted there. Jesus said absolutely nothing about homosexuality, though he made mysterious remarks about eunuchs.
Origin of Christian Celibacy
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(00:31:55)
  • Key Takeaway: The Christian institution of monasticism and celibacy, absent in the Bible and opposed by Judaism, originated in second-century Syria through exposure to Buddhist and Hindu monasteries.
  • Summary: Monasticism and the virtue of celibacy are post-biblical developments, as the Jewish tradition was family-centered. The practice first appeared in Syria during the second century, after the Bible was written. Syrian traders encountered monasteries in the East (Iran, India, China) and imported the concept back into Christianity.