Monogamous Monotheism and Polyamorous Terror in Tertullian of Carthage’s <i>On Monogamy</i>

Abstract While polyamory and nonmonogamy as practiced today are often understood to be modern phenomena, queer theorization about monogamy and polygamy may offer new insights into the history of Christianity. In this article, I analyze Tertullian’s third-century treatise On Monogamy in light of recent scholarship on mono-normativity and the “poly gaze” to expose how ancient and modern constructions of kinship and relationship rely on and reify similar monogamous standards. After discussing and critiquing Tertullian’s legal, social, biblical, and cosmological defense of monogamy, I end by arguing that poly resonances in biblical and early Christian literature might be more deeply examined by future scholarship.