Abstract
Any discussion of sexuality that ignores the Christian view is incomplete, not simply because historically Christianity has dominated Western thinking for a very long time, but also because it is still with us, even if in an unconscious or degenerate form. The equation of sex with ‘sin’, the use made of sexual scandals in the tabloid press, and the enormous guilt shown by individuals as they begin to unravel their complex attitudes towards sex — these are just some of the indications that our attitudes are still heavily influenced by the ancient Christian view.
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Notes
Jon Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach (London: SCM, 1978), p. 296.
Robert Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: CUP, 1990), pp. 27 ff.
See Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution: 1603–1714 (London: Sphere, 1969).
E.J. Tejirian, Sexuality and the Devil: Symbols of Love, Power and Fear in Male Psychology (New York and London: Routledge, 1990), p. 175.
See Estelle Roith, The Riddle of Freud: Jewish Influences on his Theory of Female Sexuality (London and New York: Tavistock, 1987), pp. 89 ff;
Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Women, Sexuality and the Catholic Church (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991), pp. 16–20;
Harriett Gilbert (ed.), The Sexual Imagination: From Acker to Zola (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993), under ‘Judaism’, pp. 134–5.
Christopher Rowland, Christian Origins: An Account of the Setting and Character of the Most Important Messianic Sect of Judaism (London: SPCK, 1985).
Alan Richardson (ed.), A Dictionary of Christian Theology (London: SCM, 1969), p. 56; J. Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads, pp. 195–8.
Alan Richardson (ed.), A Dictionary of Christian Theology, under ‘Gnosticism’, pp. 133–7; Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, passim; Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982), pp. 129–39.
E.C. Whitmont, Return of the Goddess (London: Arkana, 1987).
Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion (London: Sheed & Ward, 1985), p. 32.
St Augustine, Concerning the City of God against the Pagans (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984), p. 286.
Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve and the Serpent (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1988), p. 80.
Aline Roussel, Porneia: On Desire and the Body in Antiquity (Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1993), p. 193.
Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin (London: Arkana, 1985).
See Hilda Graef, Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion; Marina Warner, Alone of All her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Picador, 1976), pp. 34–49.
See Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1985).
P.F. Palmer (ed.), Mary in the Documents of the Church (London: Burns Oates, 1953), p. 52.
Herbert McCabe, The Teaching of the Catholic Church: A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1985), p.
See Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990), part 5.
M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 2, The Use of Pleasure (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992), chapter 3.
Sigmund Freud, The Ego and the Id, in On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991), p. 362;
Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 52.
C.G. Jung, Answer to Job, in H. Read, M. Fordham and G. Adler (eds), The Collected Works of CG. Jung, vol. 11, The Psychology of Religion: West and East (Princeton and London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969).
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© 1997 Roger Horrocks
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Horrocks, R. (1997). Christianity and Sex. In: Campling, J. (eds) An Introduction to the Study of Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390140_2
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