Book explores nonbinary identities in medieval thought
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Between 200 and 1400 CE, Christian scholars across the Roman Empire and beyond debated the nature of nonbinary individuals using biblical texts to define humanity and access to heaven.
These thinkers considered the possibility that Adam, the first man in Genesis, may have initially been androgynous, raising questions about the “natural” state of humans and the origins of gender. Different interpretations emerged.
Some believed the original human combined male and female traits before being divided, while others proposed a primordial human existing before gender altogether. These discussions extended to how intersex individuals, people with variations in sex characteristics, would be viewed and treated, with some considering them flawed or even monstrous. Theologians like Saint Augustine of Hippo shaped these debates, arguing against androgyny and supporting a strict binary view of male and female.
This perspective justified patriarchal structures and influenced laws regarding marriage and sexuality. Meanwhile, scholars in the Islamic world, particularly within the ’Abbāsid caliphate, engaged in similar discussions, often with a more accepting view of variations in sex and gender, drawing on Greek, Persian, and Indian traditions. These medieval debates about the human form and its limits had lasting effects on social customs and legal frameworks.
