Christianity and Sex Have Always Had an Awkward Relationship
The latest work by renowned historian Diarmaid MacCulloch tackles Christian attitudes to sex over the centuries. Modern-day Christians who talk about traditional values usually don’t know how changeable their tradition has been.
Josaphat Enthroned Tempted by a Naked Woman, Barlaam and Josaphat, 1469. (Heritage Art / Heritage Images via Getty Images)
Those who think that the Christian churches are responsible for all the ways in which Western society’s attitudes toward sex are repressive, unhealthy, demeaning, and misogynist will not find vindication in Diarmaid MacCulloch’s latest book, Lower Than the Angels.
Nor will it offer support for those who seek a historical golden age, either because they believe that Christianity can provide a fixed point for a return to tradition in the face of a hedonistic, selfish, and objectively disordered society, or because they believe that it once provided a liberatory atmosphere for varieties of human love.
Rather, this book is for those who want to have their view of a complicated institution further complicated.
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