I'd have run a mile
Submitted by Forgiven on November 11 2001 03:27:39
In reply to I should have said... submitted by Jules on November 9 2001 16:48:18
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but then that is my own agenda, I guess. The Origen quote - also reflected in a similar passage in Augustine's Confessions - reflects the fact that the Roman attitude to sex was radically different from ours. But there is a problem here - for 2000 years or so the church has run away from the issue and left a vacuum. Whilst that has worked reasonably well in primarily Christian cultures, now that Christianity has lost its moral authority, it is faced with a society that is fascinated by sex, and doesn't know how to respond coherently (the high rate of acquitals in rape cases is a symptom of the same dis-ease). We should be providing some answers - but I've yet to hear a serious attempt to really face the issues from a genuinely Christian perspective; on the whole the freedom that some liberals give to young adults to do what they like doesn't appear to meet the biblical challenge. In effect we are faced with the same issues as the early church; I would be interested if anyone could point me in the direction of any material from that period which does better than endorsing Origen's solution of self castration in the face of lustful thoughts...... But to return to the core question - in some ways it comes down to asking what the bible is speaking of when in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked, were ashamed and covered themselves. There is something going on here, but I really don't know what in practice. |
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