Both highly praised and intensely controversial, this brilliant book produces dramatic evidence that at one time the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches not only sanctioned unions between partners of the same sex, but sanctified them--in ceremonies strikingly similar to heterosexual marriage ceremonies. "Boswell's book provides us with a whole new [historical] model for adult gay relationships."--Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University

"I have the greatest respect for John Boswell as an historian and as a person of integrity, and I feel his work will be of great help to the church in dealing with gay marriages."--Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore of New York