The Quadruple Standard in Sexual Morality

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In the Roman world, there existed a complex system of sexual morality where different standards applied based on one's gender, social status (free or slave), and honor in society. This quadruple standard meant that rules varied depending on where individuals stood in the social hierarchy. Christianity, although not immediately erasing this system, significantly altered the expectation that different people should adhere to distinct rules. The transformation brought about by Christianity made it challenging to fully comprehend the cultural norms of the pre-Christian era, where the quadruple standard of sexual morality was deeply ingrained, encompassing distinctions based on gender, social status, slave status, concubinage, and mistress-like positions.

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.

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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.