Sexual desire and love : origins and history of the Christian ethic of sexuality and marriage / Eric Fuchs ; translated from the French by Marsha Daigle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fuchs, Eric, 1932-

Standardized Title:

Désir et la tendresse. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Sex--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Sex.

Marriage--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Marriage.

Physical Description:

v, 294 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] : J. Clarke ; New York : Seabury Press, 1983.

Summary:

In a comprehensive, ground-breaking study of the Christian teaching about sexuality, Eric Fuchs surveys the "taboos of Judaeo-Christian morality." He looks at the ethics of sexuality as they are presented in the Bible, and by early theologians, medieval scholastics, reformers and counter-reformers, and present-day thinkers. Through it all he is concerned to answer the question: "By what mysterious alchemy did the liberating Gospel of Christ who unconditionally accepted wounded humanity become transformed into moral requirements that were so guilt-forming?"

His exhaustive study leads him to develop his own theological interpretation of sexuality: its liberating aspects in the fullfillment of human life, the completion of personality, and the expression of humanity's highest ideals. Sexual Desire and Love is an indispensable resource on a subject notorious for its difficulties and ambiguities.

Contents:

I Human Significances of Sexuality 7

1. The Symbolic Control of Sexuality 9

2. Sexuality and Speech 19

a. The "Truths" of Physiology 19

b. The Developments in Culture 22

c. The Law of Language and the Humanization of Sexuality 27

II Man and Woman in the Image of God: Scriptural Theology of Sexuality 33

1. The Order of Differentiation: Sexuality Between Life and Death 35

2. In the Beginning, Otherness 41

a. "What God Has Joined Together": The Teaching of Jesus 41

b. The Wonder and the Tragedy: The Teaching of the Old Testament (O.T.) 45

c. You Are Your Body: The Teaching of Paul 52

III Love and Institution: Scriptural Theology of Marriage 58

1. Marriage According to the Old Testament 60

2. Marriage According to the New Testament 64

a. The Teaching of Jesus 64

b. The Teaching of the Apostolic Tradition 68

1. The Evangelists 68

2. The Apostle Paul 73

3. Pauline Tradition 78

IV Christianity and Sexuality: An Ambiguous History 84

1. The Early Church and Sexuality (Up to Ca. 250) 86

2. The Early Church and Conjugal Rights 93

3. The "Yes, but" of the Great Patristic Tradition in Regard to Marriage and Sexuality (Fourth and Fifth Centuries) 97

4. Saint Augustine and the Medieval Moral Tradition 115

a. Sexuality and Concupiscence 115

b. The Goals of Marriage 116

c. Marriage as Sacramentum 117

5. The Evolution of Conjugal Rights from the Fourth Century to the End of the Middle Ages 129

6. The Reformation and Protestantism 135

7. In the West There Are Henceforth Two Different Christian Ethics 149

a. Catholic Ethics 149

b. Protestant Ethics 157

V Man and Woman: a Humanity to be Created: Ethical Reflections 172

1. The Human Significance of Sexuality: A Theological Interpretation 173

2. The Couple Is the Long-Range Objective of Sexuality 176

a. Fidelity 177

b. Freedom 181

c. Conjugality 184

d. Additional Note: And the Child? 190

3. The Spiritual Value of Eroticism 192

Epilogue: The Dual Battle in Christian Ethics 210

Excursus: Note on Homosexuality 215

Theses 219.

Notes:

Translation of: Le désir et la tendresse.

Includes indexes.

Bibliography: pages 268-282.

ISBN:

0227678761

OCLC:

9196750