Paper
Sex Education in Medieval Christianity
Published Aug 1, 1977 · V. Bullough
Journal of Sex Research
17
Citations
0
Influential Citations
Abstract
The Western Medieval Christian Church adopted an attitude toward sex which reflected the intellectual hostility to bodily pleasures developed by the neo-Pythagoreans and neo-Platonists. To inculcate this attitude in the population, most of whom could not understand its theoretical justifications and who were also illiterate, the early medieval Church developed an elaborate penitential system. Sexual behavior was monitored through confessions, and appropriate penalties were administered. Through this negative or punishment-oriented technique, a consciousness of sin concerning sex was developed. A more positive approach to the same goal was also accomplished by the examples of two kinds of saints; the transvestites and the prostitutes. The oral traditions surrounding these saints emphasized the superiority of the male and the sinfulness of sex. The Western Medieval Christian Church officially adopted an attitude toward sex which reflected the intellectual hostility to bodily pleasures developed by the neo-Pythagoreans and neo-Platonists (Bullough, 1976). This position had never been the dominant view of the classical period, and it was contrary to that held by the migrating Germans as well. The problem to be examined in this paper is the methods used to inculcate these attitudes in the population at large. We know that discussions over sexual attitudes took place early in the development of institutionalized Christianity. Some of the creeds competing with Christianity, particularly Gnosticism and Manicheanism, were even more ascetic than Christianity. In fact, the basic formulator of western Christian attitudes was St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.), who was converted from Manicheanism while he was undergoing a crisis about his own inability to control his sexual desires. Augustine found that his Christian conversion made it so that "I sought now no more after a wife, nor any other hopes in this world" (Augustine, 1919, VIII, xii). Once he no longer felt the need for a wife, Augustine accepted continence as the most desirable form of life. He became particularly
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