Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity by Julia Kelto Lillis (review)

Reviewed by: Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity by Julia Kelto Lillis Travis W. Proctor Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity. By Julia Kelto Lillis. Christianity in Late Antiquity, 13. (Oakland: University of California Press. 2023. Pp. xvi, 273. 95. 00. ISBN 978-0-520-38901-4. ) "Few concepts are spoken of with as little precision and as much confidence as the concept of virginity" (1). So begins this insightful book, which examines the surprisingly variegated ways that virginity was defined, and the surprisingly wide array of functions it served, within early Christian literature. Virginity was a thoroughgoing "fixation" of Christian authors in late antiquity, and yet, as Julia Kelto Lillis persuasively argues, carried meanings and functions that frustrate attempts to convey modern understandings of virginity into ancient contexts. Part 1 makes the latter point most forcefully, noting how ancient paradigms of virginity do not clearly rely upon the anatomical definitions prevalent today. Chapter 1 demonstrates that in late antiquity an important change occurs. Prior to the fourth century, virginity is largely defined without reference to a particular physical status (i. e. , intact vaginal tissue, or a "hymen, " as is often assumed), and is instead configured in less physical and less perceptible ways (e. g. , as a "spiritual" state). Lillis concludes: "Hymens and other perceivable markers of female virginity were not always a part of 'common sense' about the human body" (56). The fourth century brings a shift, however, where virginity becomes a more "physically perceptible" phenomenon (19), concentrated in "the genitals of the female body" (23). Chapter 2 carries these insights further, noting how the earliest Christian descriptions End Page 404 of Mary's virginity vary widely among anatomical and non-anatomical notions, whereas ensuing late antique portrayals converge as new anatomical orthodoxies take hold. Lillis argues nevertheless that while virginity becomes conceived in physical terms, this did not result in a standardization of the broader meanings of the term. Chapters 3 and 4 (comprising part 2) explore Christian conceptualizations of virginity in the fourth century. Here Lillis skillfully traces how authors such as Basil of Ancyra and Gregory of Nyssa, among others, converge in locating virginity within the anatomy of the female body, and yet nonetheless diverge in the assumptions or functions that attend such discussions. She notes, for example, how Basil of Ancyra "channels ideas about virginity … into an orderly vision for burgeoning asceticism and … hierarchical relationships, " whereas Gregory of Nyssa "follows a different impulse, " insofar as he "refashions" virginity "as a universal and otherworldly concept" that informs discussions of "salvation, spiritual transformation, and mystical union with God" (131–33). As Lillis puts it, "Virginity is always bodily, but it is bodily in multiple ways" (125, cf. 135). Chapters 5 and 6 (comprising Part 3), explore the broader cultural ramifications of the "perceptibility turn" in defining virginity. These include implications in the areas of late ancient sexual relations (e. g. , marriage relationships, the sex and slave trades 166-72) as well as theological controversies (e. g. , within debates over celibacy and marriage within the Jovinianist controversy 179–84), explored in chapter 5. Chapter 6 explores how Augustine of Hippo's notion of "double integrity, " where chastity is configured as entirely moral (i. e. , non-physical) and virginity is understood as both moral and anatomical, closely linked "bodily integrity and virginal status" (212–13). Whereas previous commentators have seen in these concepts evidence for Augustine's status as a "defender of virginal status" (e. g. , in cases of sexual violence) (199), Lillis notes how the concept of double integrity nonetheless "left injured virgins susceptible to changes of status in their church and community" (213). Here Lillis effectively demonstrates just how much the anatomical turn mattered. In her conclusion, Lillis notes how virginity in early Christianity was characterized by an "ongoing synchronic variety coupled with significant diachronic change" (220). Virgin Territory effectively maps these complex dynamics, demonstrating how virginity served significant functions with early Christian cultural contexts, despite or perhaps because of its variability. Lillis's sophisticated treatment of this important subject will no doubt be useful to scholars exploring topics of sex, gender, the body, and late antique piety. To Lillis's credit, such. . .