Social Practice and Exploitation in the Ancient World

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The hosts discuss the concept of 'horrible exploitation' in the ancient world and how it is perceived differently through modern and ancient ears. They explore the impact of Christianity on social systems and structures of exploitation, highlighting the changes in perspective towards sex and the dignity of the weaker person. The chapter also explores the concept of free will and its intersection with views on sexuality in the early Christian church.

Nearly a millennium before the swinging ’60s, a revolution in attitudes toward sex and sexuality transformed how we consider marriage, family, the sexes, equality, consent, and even concepts like free will and human dignity.

In this episode of Post-Christianity?, Andrew Wilson and Glen Scrivener interview Kyle Harper, a University of Oklahoma historian of the classical and author of From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. Harper unpacks that first revolution, how it shaped the traditional Western understanding of sex, and how it has been challenged and in some ways rejected in the past 60 years.

Credits:

Post-Christianity? is a podcast from The Gospel Coalition and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. Learn more about The Keller Center here.

The Good Book Company is the publisher of The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener. For 25% off books on Christianity and culture, go to thegoodbook.com/postpodcast.