The Making of Fornication

The Making of Fornication PDF Author: Kathy L. Gaca
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520296176
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
This provocative work provides a radical reassessment of the emergence and nature of Christian sexual morality, the dominant moral paradigm in Western society since late antiquity. While many scholars, including Michel Foucault, have found the basis of early Christian sexual restrictions in Greek ethics and political philosophy, Kathy L. Gaca demonstrates on compelling new grounds that it is misguided to regard Greek ethics and political theory—with their proposed reforms of eroticism, the family, and civic order—as the foundation of Christian sexual austerity. Rather, in this thoroughly informed and wide-ranging study, Gaca shows that early Christian goals to eradicate fornication were derived from the sexual rules and poetic norms of the Septuagint, or Greek Bible, and that early Christian writers adapted these rules and norms in ways that reveal fascinating insights into the distinctive and largely non-philosophical character of Christian sexual morality. Writing with an authoritative command of both Greek philosophy and early Christian writings, Gaca investigates Plato, the Stoics, the Pythagoreans, Philo of Alexandria, the apostle Paul, and the patristic Christians Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, and Epiphanes, freshly elucidating their ideas on sexual reform with precision, depth, and originality. Early Christian writers, she demonstrates, transformed all that they borrowed from Greek ethics and political philosophy to launch innovative programs against fornication that were inimical to Greek cultural mores, popular and philosophical alike. The Septuagint's mandate to worship the Lord alone among all gods led to a Christian program to revolutionize Gentile sexual practices, only for early Christians to find this virtually impossible to carry out without going to extremes of sexual renunciation. Knowledgeable and wide-ranging, this work of intellectual history and ethics cogently demonstrates why early Christian sexual restrictions took such repressive ascetic forms, and casts sobering light on what Christian sexual morality has meant for religious pluralism in Western culture, especially among women as its bearers.

The Making of Fornication

The Making of Fornication PDF Author: Kathy L. Gaca
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520296176
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
This provocative work provides a radical reassessment of the emergence and nature of Christian sexual morality, the dominant moral paradigm in Western society since late antiquity. While many scholars, including Michel Foucault, have found the basis of early Christian sexual restrictions in Greek ethics and political philosophy, Kathy L. Gaca demonstrates on compelling new grounds that it is misguided to regard Greek ethics and political theory—with their proposed reforms of eroticism, the family, and civic order—as the foundation of Christian sexual austerity. Rather, in this thoroughly informed and wide-ranging study, Gaca shows that early Christian goals to eradicate fornication were derived from the sexual rules and poetic norms of the Septuagint, or Greek Bible, and that early Christian writers adapted these rules and norms in ways that reveal fascinating insights into the distinctive and largely non-philosophical character of Christian sexual morality. Writing with an authoritative command of both Greek philosophy and early Christian writings, Gaca investigates Plato, the Stoics, the Pythagoreans, Philo of Alexandria, the apostle Paul, and the patristic Christians Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, and Epiphanes, freshly elucidating their ideas on sexual reform with precision, depth, and originality. Early Christian writers, she demonstrates, transformed all that they borrowed from Greek ethics and political philosophy to launch innovative programs against fornication that were inimical to Greek cultural mores, popular and philosophical alike. The Septuagint's mandate to worship the Lord alone among all gods led to a Christian program to revolutionize Gentile sexual practices, only for early Christians to find this virtually impossible to carry out without going to extremes of sexual renunciation. Knowledgeable and wide-ranging, this work of intellectual history and ethics cogently demonstrates why early Christian sexual restrictions took such repressive ascetic forms, and casts sobering light on what Christian sexual morality has meant for religious pluralism in Western culture, especially among women as its bearers.

Freedom From The Sin of Adultery And Fornication

Freedom From The Sin of Adultery And Fornication PDF Author: Zacharias Tanee Fomum
Publisher: ZTF Books Online
ISBN: 1310974306
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Although the fourteen books in this series are complementary and help the reader to have a more complete view of the theme, each book is complete in its own right and should be read for the profit of it. Although the books are rooted in the Word of God, they are written, not merely to help readers to know God’s point of view on the issues discussed, but also to lead the believer beyond theoretical understanding into spiritual experience; for sanctification is ultimately not merely a doctrine but an experience. My prayer for you is that, the One who “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4), should work mightily in you as you read, working in you and through you, so that you may enter into and make progress in the life of sanctification. May the Lord bless you exceedingly!

Paul and Ancient Views of Sexual Desire

Paul and Ancient Views of Sexual Desire PDF Author: J Edward Ellis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567446212
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Paul and Ancient Views of Sexual Desire refutes the argument put forward by some scholars that Paul, in his sexual ethics, is in partial agreement with a current of thought in the Greco-Roman world that condemns sexual desire and advocates the elimination of such desire from marital sex. Ellis argues against not only this line of thought but also the attendant notion that this way of thinking underlies Paul's comments on homosexual activity in Romans 1. Through close analysis of numerous ancient passages relating to sexual desire, Ellis demonstrates that ancient thinkers tend to condemn not sexual desire in itself but excessive sexual desire and lack of self-control. Furthermore, he contends that ancient auditors would have been unlikely to see condemnation of sexual desire in Paul's words in 1 Thessalonians 4 or 1 Corinthians 7.

Making All Things New

Making All Things New PDF Author: David Powlison
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433556170
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description
Sexuality was a part of God's good creation from the beginning. But with sin came a world filled with sexual brokenness. Thankfully, God is always in the business of restoration. This book offers hope for both the sexually immoral and the sexually victimized, pointing us all to the grace of Jesus Christ, who mercifully intervenes each moment in our lifelong journey toward renewal. Author David Powlison casts a vision for the key to deep transformation, better than anything the world has to offer—not just fresh resolve, not just flimsy forgiveness, not just simple formulas, but true, lasting mercy from God, who is making all things new.

Origen's Revenge

Origen's Revenge PDF Author: Brian Patrick Mitchell
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666700150
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Is the difference of male and female to be “completely shaken off” so that men and women are no longer men and women but merely human beings? The great seventh-century saint Maximus the Confessor said yes, but such thinking is difficult if not impossible to reconcile with much else in Christian tradition that obliges men and women to live as either men or women. Origen’s Revenge contrasts the two main sources of early Christian thinking on male and female: the generally negative view of Greek philosophy, limiting sexual distinction to the body and holding the body in low regard, and the much more positive view of Hebrew Scripture, in which sexual distinction and reproduction are both deemed naturally good and necessary for human existence. These two views account for much of the controversy in early Christianity concerning marriage and monasticism. They also still contribute to current controversies over sex roles, gender identity, and sexual ethics. Origen’s Revenge also develops the more Hebrew line of early Christian thought to propose a new understanding of male and female with a firmer grounding in scripture, tradition, theology, and philosophy and with profound implications for all human relationships, whether social, political, or spiritual.

Loosed

Loosed PDF Author: Tiffany Simone
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781533529367
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description
If you've decided to read this book, I am going to take a wild guess and say that you are either a Christian struggling with one of the three sexual sins that are mentioned in the title of this book. Maybe you have struggled with them in the past, or you know someone who could be, or is, currently struggling. The good thing about you "struggling" with this sin is that a struggle with something denotes that you have not given in and that you are aware that it is wrong. You are still fighting! Stick in there my brother or sister, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This book is near and dear to my heart because in life I have struggled with homosexuality, masturbation and fornication. None of these struggles disqualified me from being used as a vessel for the Living God. God has not counted you out, so don't you count yourself out either. The sins that you cannot see pass were nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago. Jesus died for you, rose for you, ascended to Heaven for you, sent The Holy Spirit to Earth for you and Jesus is now seated at the right hand of The Father making intercessions for YOU! You have made the right choice in deciding to read this book. I've noticed a lot of confusion when it comes to this topic of sexual immorality. So, can you do me a favor? When you are finished with this book can you pass it on to your brother or sister in the Lord, or it recommend it to them? I would greatly appreciate it. Oftentimes, we never know what people are struggling with and this book could potentially save someone's life, soul and mind. So please, pass the message on about this book and its content. I hope that this is new read become a learning experience for you! Enjoy this enlightening journey through "Loosed: Breaking The Chains of Bondage from Masturbation, Fornication and Homosexuality", as I delve into scripture to help you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, be all who God has predestinated, called, justified and glorified you to be (Romans 8:29-30)!

Dirt, Greed and Sex

Dirt, Greed and Sex PDF Author: William Countryman
Publisher: SCM Press
ISBN: 0334048532
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Conducting a thorough examination of sexual ethics in the New Testament, this work argues that the New Testament writers did not construct a new sexual ethic from the ground up, but took over existing cultural patterns and refocused them, pushing some elements from the centre to the periphery. This suggests a pattern of ethics for contemporary life. Discussing biblical notions of purity and property, which dominate ethical ideas in the New Testament, the author characterizes sex as one of the rich blessings of creation, "to be received with delight and thanksgiving". Countryman's generous and eirenic views on sexual matters, based as they are on solid biblical research, are a welcome intervention in an area which unfortunately, in Christian circles, tends still to be dominated by conservatism and misinformation, rather than by liberal principle.

Desire in Paul's Undisputed Epistles

Desire in Paul's Undisputed Epistles PDF Author: Andrew Bowden
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 3161596307
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
In this study, Andrew Bowden analyzes Paul's use of »desire« (ἐπιθυμέω, ἐπιθυμητής, and ἐπιθυμία) in his undisputed epistles. After introducing critical research on these lexemes, the author applies John Lyons's theory of semantic analysis to the use of ἐπιθυμέω κτλ in Roman imperial texts. Based on these observations, he makes a hypothesis concerning the common co-occurrences of »desire« in Roman imperial texts, its antonyms, the objects it longs for, and its use within metaphorical discourse. This hypothesis is then tested by looking at the use of »desire« in Dio Chrysostom, Epictetus, Lucian of Samosata, the Cynic epistles, and Second Temple Jewish texts. Andrew Bowden illustrates how, contrary to the view of many scholars, these Roman imperial authors consistently mention positive objects of »desire.« He then applies these findings concerning »desire« to Paul, yielding important and sometimes unexpected discoveries. --

From Shame to Sin

From Shame to Sin PDF Author: Kyle Harper
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674074564
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The transformation of the Roman world from polytheistic to Christian is one of the most sweeping ideological changes of premodern history. At the center was sex. Kyle Harper examines how Christianity changed the ethics of sexual behavior from shame to sin, and shows how the roots of modern sexuality are grounded in an ancient religious revolution.

Philo of Alexandria's Exposition on the Tenth Commandment

Philo of Alexandria's Exposition on the Tenth Commandment PDF Author: Hans Svebakken
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589836197
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
In his comprehensive exposition of the Tenth Commandment (Spec. 4.79–131), Philo considers the prohibition “You shall not desire”: what sort of desire it prohibits (and why) and how the Mosaic dietary laws collectively enforce that prohibition. This volume offers the first complete study of Philo’s exposition, beginning with an overview of its content, context, and place in previous research. In-depth studies of Philo’s concept of desire and his concept of self-control provide background and demonstrate Philo’s fundamental agreement with contemporary Middle-Platonic moral psychology, especially in his theory of emotion (pathos). A new translation of the exposition, with commentary, offers a definitive explanation of Philo’s view of the Tenth Commandment, including precisely the sort of excessive desire it targets and how the dietary laws work as practical exercises for training the soul in self-control.