Quote: (03-07-2016 05:45 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:
Samseau, I'd like to understand how you deal with St. Augustine (of Hippo)'s views on sexuality. He predates Aquinas by a good 800 years or so -- thus living in the 1st to 6th centuries, the period under consideration -- and it's well-recognised he influenced Aquinas's writings if not the beliefs of the entire church, Orthodox or Catholic.
I admit, I must read more Augustine. However, the point of reading ancient authors isn't merely to regard them as a foolproof authority, but to gather information about how languages were understood back then.
However, they often did have very interesting conclusions and are full of wisdom.
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Augustine, at least, certainly regards sex outside marriage as a sin full stop, because he regarded sex as for the procreation of children:
Quote:The Good of Marriage, St. Augustine Wrote:
Marriages also have the benefit that sensual or youthful incontinence, even though it is wrong, is redirected to the honorable purpose of having children, and so out of the evil of lust sexual union in marriage achieves something good. Furthermore, parental feeling brings about a moderation in sexual desire, since it is held back and in a certain way burns more modestly. For a kind of dignity attaches to the ardor of the pleasure, when in the act whereby man and woman come together with each other, they have the thought of being father and mother.
Sex is merely wrong to pursue in and of itself, but he admits that it can produce good things. This is consistent with Jesus's teaching,
"that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens, because His sun He doth cause to rise on evil and good, and He doth send rain on righteous and unrighteous." (Matt: 5:45)
Yet, I would attack Augustine here by claiming that two married people desiring each other as "lust" is excessive. I would call it love, and sex is the natural expression of that love. I think the line between love and lust is crossed when sex is the end goal and not the relationship, and if Augustine were to deny that then he would be in direct contradiction with the Apostle Paul who said that sex in marriage is love. So if it comes between Augustine and Paul, I must go with Paul.
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Quote:On Marriage and Concupiscence, St. Augustine, Book I, Chapter 16 Wrote:
But in the married, as these things are desirable and praiseworthy, so the others are to be tolerated, that no lapse occur into damnable sins; that is, into fornications and adulteries. To escape this evil, even such embraces of husband and wife as have not procreation for their object, but serve an overbearing concupiscence, are permitted, so far as to be within range of forgiveness, though not prescribed by way of commandment: and the married pair are enjoined not to defraud one the other, lest Satan should tempt them by reason of their incontinence. For thus says the Scripture: "Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other; except it be with consent for a time, that ye may have leisure for prayer; and then come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment." Now in a case where permission must be given, it cannot by any means be contended that there is not some amount of sin. Since, however, the cohabitation for the purpose of procreating children, which must be admitted to be the proper end of marriage, is not sinful, what is it which the apostle allows to be permissible, but that married persons, when they have not the gift of continence, may require one from the other the due of the flesh - and that not from a wish for procreation, but for the pleasure of concupiscence? This gratification incurs not the imputation of guilt on account of marriage, but receives permission on account of marriage. This, therefore, must be reckoned among the praises of matrimony; that, on its own account, it makes pardonable that which does not essentially appertain to itself. For the nuptial embrace, which subserves the demands of concupiscence, is so effected as not to impede the child-bearing, which is the end and aim of marriage.
Concupiscence to Augustine in essence is the pleasure of lust, the need to bang in essence. He well understood it. And Augustine was even tougher on sex than Aquinas: he believed that any sex other than for procreation was at least a venial sin, if not mortal. Sex inside marriage for pleasure only was, maybe, tolerable to him.
First, fornications and adulteries = whoring and cheating on your spouse. I have no disagreements and that is what the Bible says.
Second, I have never said sex for it's own sake was moral. So I have no idea why you, or anyone else in this thread, keeps bringing it up. You guys are beating a straw man. My first conclusion in this thread is that sex for it's own sake with a single woman is just like enjoying any other wordly goods, such as a big meal or a rich estate. It's sinful but no more sinful than any other worldly desire.
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And Augustine writes pretty frankly of his various sexual escapades prior to converting to Christianity later in life; Augustine had a bastard child, Adeotatus, before converting over. He doesn't make much mention of fucking prostitutes in particular, he seems to have been banging sluts given the content of Confessions.
Asserting concupiscence to be a natural and good thing was an element of the Pelagian Heresy. Not saying that's what you're running here, but it's a reason Augustine went into detail on the subject:
[quote]On Marriage and Concupiscence, Chapter 40: Wrote:
In respect, however, to this concupiscence of the flesh, we have striven in this lengthy discussion to distinguish it accurately from the goods of marriage. This we have done on account of our modern heretics, who cavil whenever concupiscence is censured, as if it involved a censure of marriage. Their object is to praise concupiscence as a natural good, that so they may defend their own baneful dogma, which asserts that those who are born by its means do not contract original sin. Now the blessed Ambrose, bishop of Milan, by whose priestly office I received the washing of regeneration, briefly spoke on this matter, when, expounding the prophet Isaiah, he gathered from him the nativity of Christ in the flesh: "Thus," says the bishop, "He was both tempted in all points as a man, Hebrews 4:15 and in the likeness of man He bare all things; but inasmuch as He was born of the Spirit, He kept Himself from sin. For every man is a liar; and there is none without sin but God alone. It has, therefore, been ever firmly maintained, that it is clear that no man from husband and wife, that is to say, by means of that conjunction of their persons, is free from sin. He who is free from sin is also free from conception of this kind." Well now, what is it which St. Ambrose has here condemned in the true doctrine of this deliverance?— is it the goodness of marriage, or not rather the worthless opinion of these heretics, although they had not then come upon the stage? I have thought it worth while to adduce this testimony, because Pelagius mentions Ambrose with such commendation as to say: "The blessed Bishop Ambrose, in whose writings more than anywhere else the Roman faith is clearly stated, has flourished like a beautiful flower among the Latin writers. His fidelity and extremely pure perception of the sense of Scripture no opponent even has ever ventured to impugn." I hope he may regret having entertained opinions opposed to Ambrose, but not that he has bestowed this praise on that holy man.
I find no disagreements here. I've never asserted once in this thread that sex for it's own sake was not sinful, but that it's not a mortal 10 commandment sin but instead falls under the spiritual sins that lead to mortal sins such as excessive eating, abusive language, etc. etc. I'm reducing the status of sex for it's own sake as a sin but not eliminating it altogether, and I do not think sexing a woman whom is not a virgin and the man is considering as a wife someday is sinful either. And these thoughts do not contradict even with Augustine is saying.
For if marriage is the end goal, and you're living in a world without virgins, then again, it is foolish to marry a woman who has already been had in common with other men without making sure she is loyal to you. Therefore sex towards the goal of marriage is a necessary yet unfortunate circumstance brought about by our sinful times, and would never be necessary in a world where women's virginity was still given it's proper value.
It's like saying violence is sinful, therefore we should never hurt anyone even if they go to war with us. Likewise, sex by itself is sinful, but if war has been waged upon the virginity of women and the conception of families it makes no sense to say sex cannot be used as a weapon to create families.
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Quote:EDIT: I checked back through the thread to see if there was any mention of Augustine's view. I did find one -- a short reference to the suggestion that Augustine thought of sex similarly to food. Respectfully, this does not seem to at all represent how Augustine thought about sex, either in or out of marriage, on Confessions or any of his documents celebrating marriage in general. He regarded sex not as evil, but only Biblically justified in certain circumstances, so I think it does behoove you to address this issue. I think it's not Aquinas you have to contend with, it's half of Augustine's back catalogue and whether he got the translation entirely wrong -- bearing in mind he knew Latin and Greek (as we know from Confessions) and was living eight centuries closer to Christ than Aquinas was.
I want to read his stuff in greater detail this year, but again as I noted above his insistence that all sex is lust, even within the confines of marriage, is in direct confrontation with the teachings of Paul, and therefore there is much to be suspect in his writings here.
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