Diarmaid MacCulloch on Christianity, Sex, and Unsettling Settled Facts

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Tyler Cowen and historian Diarmaid McCulloch explore how Christianity reshaped sex, marriage, clergy, and gender, especially through the 12th-century Eucharistic revolution and the later Protestant reversal. They also examine homosexuality, Mary, cathedrals, the Reformation, Anglican decline, and why historical inquiry matters for keeping public life sane.

Main Topics: Christianity, monogamy, and bodily equality (Priority: 5/5): McCulloch argues Christianity inherited and reinforced monogamy for cultural reasons, but also introduced an egalitarian initiation rite—baptism—replacing male-only circumcision and symbolizing equal access for men and women. The 12th-century transformation of sex, marriage, and clergy (Priority: 5/5): He identifies the Eucharist’s growing sacred power as the driver behind clerical celibacy, which in turn redefined marriage around procreation and helped produce a durable Western model of sexual morality. Homosexuality, antiquity, and modern misreadings (Priority: 4/5): McCulloch traces Christian hostility to same-sex relations to Jewish procreative norms and ancient Greco-Roman unequal sexual structures, while rejecting modern projections by Foucault, Boswell, and Bray onto the past. Women, Mary, and Christian power (Priority: 4/5): The discussion covers the persistent subordination of women in church history, the importance of female mystics, and the later construction of Mary’s exalted role despite thin New Testament foundations. Cathedrals, parish systems, and purgatory (Priority: 4/5): McCulloch explains how medieval church institutions—bishops, parishes, monks, and endowments for prayer—produced Europe’s cathedral culture and its extraordinary surviving religious architecture. Reformation, Protestant marriage, and English church culture (Priority: 5/5): He argues the Reformation’s key sexual shift was restoring clerical marriage and making the minister’s family the Christian model, while noting English religious change depended heavily on Elizabeth I and local patronage. Religion, belief, belonging, and the role of history (Priority: 4/5): The conversation closes on Anglican decline, Scandinavian ‘belonging without believing,’ the limits of hell-centered religion, and McCulloch’s view that historians unsettle settled facts and preserve sanity.

Key Arguments: Christianity’s apparent link to monogamy is partly strategic: it fit better with Greek and Roman society and distinguished the new faith from Jewish polygyny. Baptism is Christianity’s egalitarian counterpoint to circumcision because it can be received by both men and women. The decisive medieval shift in Western sexuality came from changing Eucharistic theology, which elevated priestly purity and produced mandatory clerical celibacy. Once clergy became celibate, the laity became the only legitimate sexual actors, and marriage was redefined around procreation. Marriage in much of Christian history was a contract between families, especially fathers, not primarily between spouses. The church’s hostility to homosexuality comes from both Jewish procreative ethics and ancient unequal sexual roles, not from modern identities. Foucault’s account of homosexuality’s invention in the 19th century is rejected as misleading because ancient same-sex structures were real but different from modern ones. The rise of cathedrals is explained by institutional prayer economies, purgatory, and elite endowment rather than aesthetics alone. Protestantism reversed the medieval model by making married clergy and the minister’s household the norm for Christian life. Anglicanism’s decline in England reflects loss of its old role as a marker of respectability, not the disappearance of religion itself. Historians matter because they challenge settled narratives and help keep public understanding rational.

Data Points: Christian history length discussed: 2,000 years - McCulloch repeatedly frames changes in sex, marriage, and clergy across the whole Christian era. Western change in clergy celibacy: 11th–12th century - He places mandatory celibacy for all Western clergy in the 11th and 12th centuries. Marriage/celibacy debate in church history: About 1,200 years - He notes spousal consent and marital change arrived only after most of Christian history had already passed. Catholic Church history example: Henry VIII’s annulment logic - He cites lack of consummation as a way Henry VIII escaped one marriage. Parish system emergence: 9th century onwards - McCulloch says the parish as a universal local pastoral unit developed in the West from the 9th century. Old Testament / New Testament structure: New Testament built on Hebrew scripture - He describes the Christian community creating the New Testament on top of Hebrew scripture, later called the Old Testament. Pauline text cited: 1 Corinthians 7:3 - Used to show the reciprocal claim that each spouse’s body belongs to the other. Foucault’s sexuality volumes: 4 volumes - Tyler asks about Michel Foucault’s four-volume history of sexuality. Coining of 'homosexuality': 1869 - McCulloch rejects Foucault’s claim that homosexuality was invented in the 19th century because the word was coined then. Cathedrals discussion window: 12th and 13th centuries - He identifies this as the main period of cathedral-building in Western Europe. McCulloch’s age: 74 - He says he is 74 and may be entitled to rest after his latest book. Personal church childhood: Age 4 to 20 - He grew up attending St. Mary’s in Wetherden from age four until twenty. Number of churches seen: About 6,000 seen; 8,000 to go - He estimates his lifetime touring of English parish churches. English church attendance figure raised: 5% - Tyler cites an estimate that 5% of Englishmen go to church. Denmark baptism practice: 80% baptized - McCulloch gives Denmark as an example of belonging without believing.

Pivotal Quotes: "The history of Christianity, and that may be something which is now changing." — Diarmaid McCulloch: On Christianity’s long drift away from its early egalitarian impulses and possible modern reversal. "The thing about hell is, all right, it's there in the Bible, but it is a profoundly unconvincing doctrine." — Diarmaid McCulloch: On whether hell is necessary for sustainable Christianity. "Historians are the profession which keeps the human race sane." — Diarmaid McCulloch: Near the end, describing the social purpose of historical inquiry.

Implications: The episode reframes Christian history as a series of institutional choices about bodies, authority, and ritual, not just doctrine. It suggests modern religion may endure more through belonging, place, and practice than through fear or dogma.