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Sexual Liberation The Scandal of Christendom

Raymond J. Lawrence,

Book Code: C9373

ISBN: 0-275-99373-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99373-3

DOI:

192 pages, n/a

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 1/30/2007

List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £27.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality

Reviews:

This book is an account of the ways in which sexual pleasure has been devalued and demonized in the West by the historical forces of Christendom. It tells the story of how sex came to be regarded by societies throughout the ages as perverse, sinful, and wrong, and how the centuries-old motivations of a few have persisted into modern times, coloring our view of sex and sexuality to this day.
—Caps Connect May 2007
Director of hospital pastoral care at Columbia University's Medical Center, Lawrence describes the strange ways that sexual pleasure has been demonized in Europe and its sphere of influence, and the likely motivations driving this process. Among his topics are the sexual life and teachings of Jesus, sexual pleasure in Judaism, the victory of monasticism, the Cathars, the sexuality of Teresa of Avila, The Reformation as sexual revolution, and sexual disarray in the late 20th century.
—Reference & Research Book News May 2007

Endorsement From Robert C. Powell, M.D., Ph.D.: Like the child in the fairy tale who noted that "the emperor has no clothes" the author sees what others miss...This well-documented but easy to read volume is well recommended to thoughtful Christians, Jews befuddled by their Christian colleagues, and anyone trying to comprehend Western sexual ways.
Endorsement From Rev. John M. Gessell, Ph.D.
Professor of Christian Ethics, emeritus
School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanne, TN: ...a lucid and masterful account of Christianity's shifting attitude toward sex from the positive valuation of its Jewish roots to the contemporary Church's obsessive hysteria about sex. For anyone who is seeking a clue to today's Christian sex wars, this book will provide it.
Endorsement From Rev. Myron C. Madden, Ph.D.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (retired), Louisiana State University: Raymond Lawrence has the courage to undo most of what the church has done through the centuries in making Jesus anything but a poor Palestinian Jew. He does much for my own struggle to give Jesus his Jewishness and his humanity.

Description: Sex sells, they say, but even today it is considered forbidden or sinful by many in the Western world. This book is an account of the ways in which sexual pleasure has been devalued and demonized in the West by the historical forces of Christendom. It tells the story of how sex came to be regarded by societies throughout the ages as perverse, sinful, and wrong, and how the centuries-old motivations of a few have persisted into modern times, coloring our view of sex and sexuality to this day. For good or ill, Christianity has been, since before the ebbing of the Roman Empire, the principal bearer of public values in the western world. This book traces the changes that have shaped and reshaped what is considered moral sexual behavior (and immoral sexual behavior) by Christians and non-Christians alike. Lawrence's account of the perversion of sexual values begins with the intersection of the early Jesus movement and the morality of the Greco-Roman culture and empire. He goes on to point out the ways Christianity and its moral code were reshaped under the impact of Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the imperial religion, and how key figures of the Middle Ages generally succeeded in promoting a religion whose chief goal was the obliteration of sexual pleasure. The story continues on through the ages until now. This controversial look at sex and Christianity sheds new light on our views of pornography, homosexuality, adultery, and other issues of sex and sexuality.

LC Card Number: 2006035008

LCC Class: BT708

Dewey Class: 261

PDF Catalogs:
Praeger Religion Catalog 2008.pdf


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