Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

4 hours and 57 minutes

There is a common misconception that sex, love, and marriage in medieval and early modern Europe followed very specific, inflexible rules and expectations that remained unchanged for centuries. But the boundaries of matrimony, sexuality, and romantic relationships have always been complicated, and the rules surrounding them are forever changing.

Throughout the 10 lectures of Sex, Love, and Marriage from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, you will find that looking closer at marriage and sexuality in this period reveals a vibrant history of flexibility, of questioning and adaptation, and of evolutionary - and sometimes even revolutionary - change. With Professor Jennifer McNabb, you will explore these crucial aspects of the human experience as they were formed and transformed in the centuries that stretched between the Roman adoption of Christianity and the emergence of the Enlightenment. Along with the more traditional aspects of sex and marriage, you will also examine:

The Christian church’s complex relationship with sex and celibacy
The experience of the unmarried or formerly married in a marriage-driven society
Prostitution and commercialized sex
The realities vs. the fiction of forbidden love and unrecognized unions
The rise of companionate marriage
How the Protestant Reformation altered the sexual and matrimonial landscape
And more
As you look closely at these and other dimensions of love and sex across a millennium of change and resistance, you will get a more nuanced and honest view of the complexity of our past and how medieval and early modern perspectives on sex, love, and marriage continue to influence the way we think about and experience them today.