IN THE FLESH Part two: Sex and the Church In the second of a three-part series to promote discussion on questions about sex and God, Carla Grosch-Miller explores how Christian teaching has developed over the centuries

hristian tradition has always been 12th Century which suggested that sex was about more intellectually lively and dynamic, than procreation was countered in theology by a renewed forged in argument and wrestling with emphasis on the relationship between sexual desire contemporary issues. The historian and . Gratian’s great collection of canon law Peter Brown says that in the second renewed Augustine’s conviction that all sexual activity and third centuries, “controversy was was evil unless it could be justified by procreative the saving of Christianity”, as it forced purpose. In the same period, the First Lateran Council diverse and distant religious figures to keep talking instituted priestly celibacy, dissolving the marriages of Cwith one another. priests and making the parties do penance. The development of Christian sexual ethics shows In the 13th Century, Aquinas affirmed that sex was this dynamism over the centuries. Christianity did not justified only for procreation but he hinted that it could begin with a sexual code. The New Testament provided also be an aid to marital love. By the 15th Century this a central focus for Christian moral life in the great hint flowered into the argument that sex in marriage commandment to love God and neighbour. Beyond that was good in and of itself. Denis the Carthusian wrote the New Testament valued marriage, procreation and about the possible integration of spiritual love and celibacy, and condemned sexual immorality without sexual pleasure and Martin LeMaistre taught that fully defining it. sexual pleasure contributes to the wellbeing of the As the tradition began to take shape, it was influenced partners, their arguments making inroads against the by Greco-Roman culture’s widespread revulsion toward Augustinian position. the body and distrust of sexual desire. An anti-material New theories of sexuality shaped the controversies dualism that saw the body as inferior to the soul was of the , with Protestantism rejecting paired with the inferior status of women with the priestly celibacy. Both and John result that the female body was thought particularly Calvin affirmed marriage and human sexuality as evil. In the second century, Tertullian preached: part of God’s good order and believed that marriage “Women are the devil’s gateway.” Suspicion of the (not celibacy as Augustine had argued) rightly ordered sexed body is reflected in ’s reported self- sexual desire. Calvin went further holding that the castration “for the kingdom of God” in the third greatest good of marriage and sex is the mutual century, and in ’s saying, “Blessed is the man society formed between husband and wife. In this that dashes his genitals against a rock,” in the fourth. way Protestantism was freed from the idea that sex The chief architect of western Christian sexual was only for procreation, an idea that continues to ethics for many centuries was Augustine, also influence Catholic sexual ethics which prohibit writing in the fourth century. Augustine set the use of contraception. forth the goodness of marriage and procreation, The Catholic ethicist Margaret Farley though he had a negative view of sexual summarises the development of Christian desire as in itself tending towards evil. He tradition as a struggle to transform an concluded that sexual desire is rightly essentially negative view of sexuality into ordered only when exercised for a positive one. It moved, she says, from the purpose of procreation. having to justify sexual intercourse As centuries passed, this negative view of even in marriage as a means to sex took on more weight, with procreate and to avoid fornication, to penitential manuals (used in the affirming its potential for expressing confessional) prohibiting many kinds of and strengthening love between the sexual activity, including certain positions partners. for intercourse. The rise of courtly love in the In the 20th and 21st Centuries,

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‘Christian tradition has always been forged in argument’ Illustration: Chris Andrews

theological reflection on sex developed dramatically in mutual, respectful and loving interrelationship. both Protestant and Catholic communities. Protestant Theological arguments about sex will abound as thinking has been deeply affected by historical and the tradition continues to develop. As I write this, the biblical scholarship, revealing the early roots of Vatican is reconsidering its pastoral approach to sexual Christian sexual norms and questioning the direct ethics, and the United Reformed Church is discussing applicability of some of them, and by developments whether local churches should be permitted to conduct in social and human sciences. Contraception and same-sex marriages. It behoves us to ask: What ideas remarriage after have become acceptable in in Christian tradition prove to be of enduring value, many Protestant communities. For the most part, the enabling the flourishing of love of God and neighbour? ideal context for sexual intercourse is still seen to be What Christian values underpin your personal sexual heterosexual marriage, yet questions of premarital ethic? What would a positive Christian sexual ethic for sex, cohabitation, homosexuality, masturbation, the the 21st Century look like? disabling impact of shame and new reproductive technologies are stimulating new thinking. The Carla Grosch-Miller is an ordained minister and doctrines of incarnation and the Trinity are fuelling a i theological educator reimagination of the basis of Christian sexual ethics in the dignity of the person and the manifestation of Next month: The link between sexuality and spirituality

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