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John Eastburn Boswell (March 20, 1947 – December 24, 1994) was an American historian and a full professor at Yale University. Many of Boswell's studies focused on the issue of religion and homosexuality , specifically Christianity and homosexuality .
His study heightened the essentialist-social constructionist debate over the understanding of same-sex relationships in the past. Boswell stressed that his use of gay was not anachronistic; rather he selected the term to indicate individuals who chose same-sex relations.
In contrast to the “social constructionist” view (which posits that gay identities are the creation of modern Western societies), Boswell staunchly defended his views that gay people were present in such diverse settings as classical Athens, imperial Rome, and medieval Europe.
They credited Boswell with providing "a revolutionary interpretation of the Western tradition", but noted that his premise that "a gay identity and gay people can be found throughout history" had been challenged as "essentialist" by social constructionists.
- John Boswell
- 1980
May 8, 2023 · Boswell himself employs the strategies of the social constructionist, in Christianity, Homosexuality, and Social Tolerance and Same Sex Unions: he destabilizes theological essentialisms around sexuality by exposing their origins and providing credible historical counter-examples.
Jan 26, 1996 · Introduction. John Boswell (d. 1994) has been probably the best known historians of homosexuality in recent decades. His work is extremely controversial, and has been from the start. This page collects information about Boswell's works, reviews, and discussions of particular points of his scholarship.
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Three articles are critical of social constructionism: Weinrich's call for a more interactionist approach combining social and biological knowledge about sexual desire; an attack by Dynes using various approaches of intellectual history and historicism; and Boswell's excellent article (one of the best in the collection) on
