Cover art for Lower than the Angels
Published
Penguin Uk, January 2026
ISBN
9780141990958
Format
Softcover, 688 pages
Dimensions
19.8cm × 13cm × 3.1cm

Lower than the Angels A History of Sex and Christianity

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Due January 20, 2026.
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A major assessment of Christianity's encounters with questions of sex, gender and the family over the ages

The Bible observes that God made humanity 'for a while a little lower than the angels'. If humans are that close to angels, does the difference lie in human sexuality and what we do with it? In a single lifetime, Christianity or historically Christian societies have witnessed one of the most extraordinary about-turns in attitudes to sex and gender in human history, bringing liberation for some and fury and fear for others.

This book by Oxford's Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding through telling a 3000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and the family, with noises off from their sacred texts. It beckons us to pay attention to the sheer glorious complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity, an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity's deepest desires, fears and hopes.

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