William Gibson is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History. His publications include James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops; The Church of England 1688-1832 and Religion and the Enlightenment 1600-1800.

The Long Eighteenth Century was the Age of Revolutions, including the first sexual revolution. In this era, sexual toleration began and there was a marked increase in the discussion of morality, extra-marital sex, pornography and same-sex relationships in both print and visual culture media. William Gibson and Joanne Begiato here consider the ways in which the Church of England dealt with sex and sexuality in this period. Despite the backdrop of an increasingly secularising society, religion continued to play a key role in politics, family life and wider society and the eighteenth-century Church was still therefore a considerable force, especially in questions of morality. This book integrates themes of gender and sexuality into a broader understanding of the Church of England in the eighteenth century. It shows that, rather than distancing itself from sex through diminishing teaching, regulation and punishment, the Church not only paid attention to it, but its attitudes to sex and sexuality were at the core of society's reactions to the first sexual revolution.

Introduction
Chapter One: The Church's Teaching On Sex.
Chapter Two: The Church, Sex and The Public Square
Chapter Three: Illicit Sex and The Church Courts
Chapter Four: The Church, Marriage, and Marital Sex
Chapter Five: Evangelicals, Sex, and Respectability
Chapter Six: Celibacy, 'Conjugal Chastity', and 'Moral Restraint'
Chapter Seven: The Church, Sodomy, and Same-Sex Desires
Chapter Eight: Scandals, the Public and the Clergy.
Chapter Nine: Sexual Narratives, Obscenity and The Church