SPIRITUALITY OF SEX
Keywords:
Spirituality, Sex, Kāmasūtra, Human-Sex, Animal-Sex, Tantra Yoga, Sacred Sex, Pro-Celibacy, Bridal Mysticism, Madhurya Bhava, Bridal Mystic, Carmelite MysticsAbstract
In religious or spiritual circles and also outside of them, human beings basically tend to have one of two fundamental views or value judgments with regard to the ultimate nature of sexuality. One of these views holds that sexuality is good, healthy, and natural. This is obviously a very popular belief in the time that we live in and is often fuelled by a certain rebellion against the repressive ideas and traditions of the past. The other view, which many traditional religions seem to emphasize, is that sexuality is dirty and evil, something to be ashamed of and eschewed by serious spiritual contenders. This might have prompted Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900) to state that “Christianity gave Eros poison to drink: he did not die of it but degenerated – into vice.”1 Benedict XVI, the present Pope, his countryman, might have felt that it was his obligation to give a fitting reply to the above mentioned vicious attack on the Church and its morality. In Deus Caritas Est, his first Encyclical Letter, he took up the issue, and engaged in a scholarly exposition.
References
Friedrich Nietzsche, http://thinkexist.com/quotation/christianity_gave_eros_ poison_to_drink-he_did_not/.
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy & The Genealogy of Morals, New York: Doubleday, 1956, 232.
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (Encyclical Letter, 2005), at www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi, §3
Hugh B. Urban, Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 153-154.
Omar Hassan Kasule Sr., Human Sexuality and the Shariat, www.zawaj.com/articles/sexuality_kasule.html
Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society, Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987, 32-33.
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Carl Jung, The Psychology of the Unconscious, Tel-Aviv: Dvir Co. Ltd., 1973 (originally 1917).
Nammalvar, Tiruvaymoli, VIII.2.1, trans. S. Satyamurthi Ayyangar, Bombay: Ananthacharya Indological Research Institute, 1981, 738.
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Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2907.htm
Dionysius, Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, trans. Colm Luibheid, New York: Paulist Press, 1987, 51.
Origen, Light from Light, trans. Dupre and Wiseman, New York: Paulist Press, 1988, 29.
St. John of the Cross, John of the Cross: Selected Writings, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, New York: Paulist Press, 1987, 257.
St. Teresa of Avila, Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, vol. 3, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, Trivandrum: Carmel International Publishing House, 2006, 379.
Ewert Cousins, “Preface” in Bernard of Clairvaux: Selected Works, trans. and foreword by G. R. Evans, Classics of Western Spirituality Series, New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987, 5.
Theresa Moritz, “The Church as Bride in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs” in The Chimaeras of His Age: Studies on Bernard of Clairvaux (Studies in Medieval Cistercian History 5), eds. E. R. Elder and J. R. Sommerfeldt, Cistercian Studies Series 63, Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1980, 3.
John R. Sommerfeldt, Bernard of Clairvaux on the Spirituality of Relationship, New York and Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2004, 52, citing Jean Leclercq, Monks on Marriage: A Twelfth-Century View, New York: Seabury Press, 1982, 79.
Butler, Western Mysticism, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003, 109.
Jean Leclercq, Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian Spirit, trans. Claire Lavoie, Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1976, 76.
Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, §27
Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, §34.
www.consecratedvirgins.org/pjp2-b.pdf; www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_ paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19950315en.html,§1.
