Core Questions, Strange Alchemy and My Bias

The core question is: by what strange alchemy has the liberating gospel of Jesus who unconditionally accepted wounded humanity become translated into a contemporary sexual ethic that is restrictive, uninspiring and guilt forming?
In this paper I strive to answer this, more often using the Catholic context as a larger frame for one dominant Christian view.

Other questions that must be addressed are:

How is it that Christian sexuality has been seen as opposed to spirituality?
Is the purpose of sex biological or both relational and spiritual?
What are the effects of Christian teaching on sexual ethics?
What are some remedies for us today?
What is the divine ethic for married love?
Could sexuality be an archtype or metaphor for this mystery we call God?

Is the erotic, in the biblical view, actually God's poetry of love
calling us out of ourselves into relationship and community?

Pondering these issues in the perspective of our Protestant/Catholic traditions can illumine some of our dilemmas and confusion in sexual matters today. Eric Fuchs Sexual Desire and Love, a thorough theological study, is the inspiration for the first part of this paper.

We are seeking to explore

1) a biblical spirituality of sexuality;
2) an incarnational theology of marriage; and
3) a Catholic or Christian context. Each of these is an aspect of the " whole" of
Christian mystical spirituality, of which 1), 2), and 3) are the "enfleshment."

By "mystical," I mean the reality and experience of ourselves (individually, communally--body, mind and soul--as being in immediate touch with God at the very center of ourselves, our whole selves, already available to awareness.

My goal is to empower people to view themselves and their sexuality differently, positively as a gift. I am not attempting here to write a theology of love or marriage, but to suggest counter-points and new directions. I have divided the subject into these topics: the early Christian view, rational control over the body was the ideal, effects of a natural law ethic, sexuality is not primarily biological, an eight fold design, effects of Catholic teaching, linchpin of the Catholic system, and concluding with a biblical view of God's poetry of love. I begin with a brief historical perspective.

On this blog I will post only highlights of each section while seeking better placement of the entire paper. I shall post the conclusion first, so readers can see where we are going, which seems more suitable for this format.

My bias is my life-experience, counseling many others, my own loves, my faith, and a belief that this mystery we call God speaks through our desires, wants, senses, loves, all of our carnality. Theologically, this view has a rich tradition in Celtic Spirituality, and references will be given. Two books by John O'Donohue, Anam Cara, and Beauty are places to begin.