Exploring the Theology of Human Sexuality
Delve into the theological perspectives on human sexuality from a moral philosophy standpoint, exploring the significance, challenges, and importance of this complex subject. Discover how sexual morality, creation, and embodiment play crucial roles in shaping our understanding of sexuality and its place in God's creation.
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A Theology of Human Sexuality C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D. Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy Union University Adjunct Professor of Bioethics Trinity Graduate School Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
A Few Caveats Our anthropology requires charity. Our language anticipates double entendres. Our calling demands compassion. Our experience requires humility. Our task calls for discernment, fidelity, and courage.
Why So Important? Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. http://blogs.uoregon.edu/environmentalliterature230/files/2012/10/eden-nw30y9.jpg (Genesis 2:24-25 ESV)
http://www.stevenetniss.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/stpaul01.jpghttp://www.stevenetniss.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/stpaul01.jpg But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. (Ephesians 5:3 ESV)
Why Such a Difficult Subject? http://www.ivpbooks.com/largecovers/9780851119946.jpg A confused culture in which our paradigms have shifted radically. A marginalized church. http://acl.asn.au/wp/uploads/christopher-ash1.jpg A challenged Bible.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2012/02/ST_12.02.27_DG_Marriage_05.pnghttp://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2012/02/ST_12.02.27_DG_Marriage_05.png www.pewsocialtrends.org
Sexual Morality: Creation Human sex and sexuality are important, powerful, and good aspects of God s creation. Genesis 2:15-25 bonding, procreation Proverbs 5:15-20 pleasure, fidelity
http://www.stanleyjgrenz.com/images/portraits/Grenz023-SM.jpghttp://www.stanleyjgrenz.com/images/portraits/Grenz023-SM.jpg Sexuality is a dimension of our embodied existence. There are only two ways to be human as male or as female. At its core, this embodied existence includes a fundamental incompleteness, one which is symbolized by biological sex and is based in our fundamental sexuality. Through sexuality we give expression both to our existence as embodied creatures and to our basic incompleteness as embodied persons. It forms the dynamic that lies at the basis of the uniquely human drive toward bonding. Sexuality forms the foundation for the drive which moves male and female to come together to form a unity of persons in marriage. --Stanley Grenz, Sexual Ethics
Goods of sex and marriage Procreational good Gen 1:28; 9:1 Relational good Humanity which is not fellow-humanity is inhumanity, Barth, CD III/1:117) Public good Ordered and regulated relationships in human society.
Marriage The relational purpose of marriage Genesis 2:24 one flesh Sexual and non-sexual companionship Giving of one s person to another [The] casual sexual encounter . . . is dehumanizing because it treats the giving of the body as if the person were not thereby involved, as if persons entirely transcended their bodies and were free to use the body simply as a pleasure-giving mechanism. --Gilbert Meilaender, Jr.
Pornography 1. There is a causal connection between words or pictures and human behavior. Shame is part of the natural human condition. It is the counterpart of natural human modesty. The political purpose or result of pornography is to make us shameless. There is a connection between shame and self-restraint, and, therefore, a connection between shame and self- government or democracy. Self-restraint is necessary to the moral and political well-being of the community. Pornography threatens self-restraint and thus threatens democracy. Conclusion: Therefore, government has at least a modest interest in censoring pornography (as a protection of democracy). 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Walter Berns, Beyond the Garbage Pale
Sexual Morality: After the Fall Sexuality and sex are disordered. http://www.leninimports.com/michelangelo_adam_and_eve_canvas_print_24.jpg Sex is to be expressed according to God s instructions. not outside the covenant of marriage Heb 13:4 sexual lust is forbidden Matt 5:27:30
Sex Not the most important thing in the world! 1 Corinthians 7:1-5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV)
Marriage The healing purpose of marriage it is better to marry than to burn 1 Corinthians 7:9 Marriage functions to provide needed restraint and discipline as the God-given place of healing for our sexual nature. --Gilbert Meilaender
Celibacy or singleness Vocation? Pathology? Gift parallel with marriage? 1 Corinthians 7:7, 32-35 Adam and Eve were married Jesus was single
Celibacy or singleness Pastoral issues Identity and self-worth Solitude and loneliness Sexuality and celibacy
Cohabitation http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4sX7BOqM0UE/Toon_5uOYuI/AAAAAAAAA4s/HBRVHNX1d8g/s400/cohabitation.jpg
Cohabitation According to sociologist Patricia Morgan, cohabiting relationships are fragile: Cohabitants last less than two years. Less than 4% last for ten years or more. Cohabitants are more likely to divorce later. Cohabitants are more likely to cheat. www.civitas.org.uk
Cohabitation Cohabiting couple accumulate less wealth than married couples. Married men earn 10%-40% more than unmarried or cohabiting men. Cohabiting and single mothers often lack a father s income. Cohabitants have more health problems than marriage couples, including an increase in depression.
Cohabitation Cohabiting women are more likely to be physically, emotionally, and sexually abused than married women. Children of cohabiting couples often suffer. Only 36% of children whose parents were cohabiting at their birth in 1997 were likely to live their entire childhood in a two-parent home. 70% of children born in married households in 1997 were likely to live their entire childhood in a two-parent home.
Cohabitation: The Biblical Witness Creation the only appropriate expression of sexual intimacy is the bond of marriage. Singleness is an inappropriate context for the sex act. One flesh is reserved for married couples. No permission for cohabitation in scripture. Marriage and the marriage bed are held up as honorable.
Homosexuality The theologian who speaks of the dubious character of homosexuality and he would be blind or unforgetful of his mission if he ignored it must in any case look at another side of the matter and dare not defame the humanum of the person so conditioned in order to make his negation easier. Helmut Thielicke, Theological Ethics, vol 3, Sex (Eerdmans, 1964), p. 271.
It is true that the homosexual relationship is not a Christian form of encounter with our fellow man; it is nevertheless very certainly a search for the totality of the other human being. He who says otherwise has not yet observed the possible human depth of a homoerotic-colored friendship. Moreover, the perversion inherent in the reduction of sexuality to mere physical excitation is also to be found in heterosexual relationships. Helmut Thielicke, Theological Ethics, vol 3, Sex, pp. 271-272.
All people (including Christians) are called to redemption and sanctification in their being as sexed creatures, as male and female. Persistently tempted to borrow their understandings of the significance and meaning of sexual being as male or female from sources which are themselves radically alienated from God who is Lord of all creation, it would therefore be unsurprising if these understandings were not themselves forms of self- alienation. http://cb.pbsstatic.com/l/63/9263/9780953299263.jpg www.eauk.org
Sexuality: Redeemed and Celebrated 1 Timothy 4:1-5 http://images-cdn.lancasteronline.com/25786_640.jpg Salvation by God s grace through faith in Christ is not redemption from sexuality, sex, or our sexual impulses. It is rather redemption within our created sexuality, necessitated by distortions of the Fall http://i43.tower.com/images/mm113145945/meaning-sex-christian-ethics-moral-life-dennis-p-hollinger-paperback-cover-art.jpg
Gods will for today For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 ESV)
