Polygamy and Dante's wife
Submitted by Heather on November 25 1999 at 23:33:00
In reply to polygamy Submitted by F.O.D. on November 25 1999 at 23:01:14
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"Monogamy is the guideline for church leaders" Guideline or rule? Forgive me, I'm always a bit hazy on how Protestant churches work. I can tell you that monogamy is the rule, not the guideline, for all Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Anglicans – with the single exception that some Anglican churches in Africa allow polygamous non-Christian men to be baptized without putting away their wives, on condition that they only sleep with one wife. I understand that other churches in Africa have had to deal with this problem as well, but I don't know how they've managed the problem. "It worked for the Hebrews. Sort of." So nice to meet a fellow heretic. :) Actually, I did a lot of research on this recently, and I concluded that there's no biblical basis for the ban on polygamy. In fact, I would say there is less biblical basis for permitting gay sex than there is for permitting multiple spouses – which makes it interesting that multiple spouses are much less acceptable in today's society than gays are. "What happened to Dante's wife (before Beatrice wedded him)?" She didn't. :) The greatest Christian love story outside of the Bible (unless one counts Abelard and Heloise) is about two married people who weren't married to each other. Dante fell in love with Beatrice when he was nearly nine and she was eight. He remained in love with her until her death at age twenty-five. In all of his writings about Beatrice, Dante never mentions his own marriage, which probably took place before Beatrice's death; nor does he mention Beatrice's marriage. He seems to have considered both facts irrelevant to his "chaste love." Ah, those were the days, when unconsummated love was the ideal. I've always thought that celibate boylovers could learn a lot from courtly love. Heather |