V
valient_Lucy
Guest
I figure I should probably explain my suggestion that the Church has adopted a Protestant understanding of marriage and sex. It’s really quite simple.
The Early Church Fathers viewed marriage and marital sex in a negative light. This is a historical fact. To deny this is no different than denying that Joseph Smith advocated polygamy. It would be foolish to suggest that, because we have his own writings that clearly demonstrate his promotion of polygamy. In the same way, the writings of the Early Church Fathers clearly demonstrate this attitude.
However, within the last few hunderd years, a different outlook has emerged. St. Francis de Sales asserts in the Introduction to the Devout Life that marriage is holy in all its parts, and that marital intercourse is holy, commendible, and good for the commonwealth. This pattern continues to the modern day, where respected priests like Father Corapi assert that in the marital act, “couples enter the holy of holies and cooperate with God in the creation of new life.” We also have Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, which is a very positive understanding of marriage and the marital act. What changed? I think that perhaps it was the influence of the Protestant Reformation.
Protestant Christians naturally better predisposed to having a high view of marriage than Catholic Christians. The fact that Protestants do not regard marriage as a sacrament is a red herring, since this stems from the fact that Protestants have a different understanding of sacraments and justification, not from teachings about marriage. The reasons that Protestants are predisposed to having a higher view of marriage stems from several things. First, Protestants focus their doctrines on what was specifically found in the Bible. As a result, they are far more likely to be influenced by the writings in the Old Testament, which are very positive about marriage, than Catholic Christians. Second, Protestant Christians rejected the writings of the Church Fathers, so they were less likely to be influenced by their negativity toward these subjects. Lastly, they rejected devotion to the saints. Instead of the saints, they focused their attention to the holy people of the Bible, including the Old Testament, most of whom were married. Protestant theology and practices helped them (and still do) to look at marriage and the marital act in a very positive light.
St. Thomas Aquinas studied Jewish and pagan Greek philosophers, incorperating their writings into his own. I think it’s possible that something similar happened in this case. Now, this is just a guess on my part, since I can’t provide any evidence. It might simply be a correlation, or a coincidence. But I simply find it an odd coincidence that, as Protestant Christianity emerged (which naturally affirms the goodness of marriage), Catholics suddenly had a more positive take on marriage and marital sex.
The Early Church Fathers viewed marriage and marital sex in a negative light. This is a historical fact. To deny this is no different than denying that Joseph Smith advocated polygamy. It would be foolish to suggest that, because we have his own writings that clearly demonstrate his promotion of polygamy. In the same way, the writings of the Early Church Fathers clearly demonstrate this attitude.
However, within the last few hunderd years, a different outlook has emerged. St. Francis de Sales asserts in the Introduction to the Devout Life that marriage is holy in all its parts, and that marital intercourse is holy, commendible, and good for the commonwealth. This pattern continues to the modern day, where respected priests like Father Corapi assert that in the marital act, “couples enter the holy of holies and cooperate with God in the creation of new life.” We also have Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, which is a very positive understanding of marriage and the marital act. What changed? I think that perhaps it was the influence of the Protestant Reformation.
Protestant Christians naturally better predisposed to having a high view of marriage than Catholic Christians. The fact that Protestants do not regard marriage as a sacrament is a red herring, since this stems from the fact that Protestants have a different understanding of sacraments and justification, not from teachings about marriage. The reasons that Protestants are predisposed to having a higher view of marriage stems from several things. First, Protestants focus their doctrines on what was specifically found in the Bible. As a result, they are far more likely to be influenced by the writings in the Old Testament, which are very positive about marriage, than Catholic Christians. Second, Protestant Christians rejected the writings of the Church Fathers, so they were less likely to be influenced by their negativity toward these subjects. Lastly, they rejected devotion to the saints. Instead of the saints, they focused their attention to the holy people of the Bible, including the Old Testament, most of whom were married. Protestant theology and practices helped them (and still do) to look at marriage and the marital act in a very positive light.
St. Thomas Aquinas studied Jewish and pagan Greek philosophers, incorperating their writings into his own. I think it’s possible that something similar happened in this case. Now, this is just a guess on my part, since I can’t provide any evidence. It might simply be a correlation, or a coincidence. But I simply find it an odd coincidence that, as Protestant Christianity emerged (which naturally affirms the goodness of marriage), Catholics suddenly had a more positive take on marriage and marital sex.
L 16,255A Quoted in CCC. ( 4th Century…300’s)