Sexuality and its Deviations in the Post-Modern World

Teologia i Moralność, 1970

2022

We live in a sex crazed world. A day in life of a European, an American and now of an Indian cannot be passed without a look or talk at sexual images or appeals. Each nook and corner are filled with the talk on sexuality. The worldwide media addresses the issues related to sexual ethics of the time. In making advertisements, the sexual instincts become inevitable. The sexual behaviors which were behind the screens became popular and telecasted through the same media. The expectations for causal relations often assume sexual relations. Surely a visitor from another planet would say of this age, “sex is everywhere and always on their minds.” In this postmodern world the minds of the youth and adolescents are in thirst for the freedom to lead a life according to their whims and fancies. This also makes this the society more immoral and divergent. The unnatural way of life such as premarital sex, adulatory, homosexual tendencies are increasing. In this different context, the issue of premarital sexual relations of this modern world are to be read and evaluated through the eyes of Catholic Church, which is so required at present. This short paper is an attempt to analyze the premarital sexual relations and its consequences in this modern world and also to evaluate this issue in the light of catholic teachings, including scriptural, doctrinal and pastoral analysis. In the two chapters, first is concentrated in the modern trends and its impact on youth whereas in the second, we analyze the particular issue in the light of Scriptural, patristic, magisterial teachings. A survey is conducted among the youth from different regions of Kerala in order to scrutinize the theme and to get their free thoughts on the same. The end of the paper is filled with some of the pastoral challenges and some suggestions to tackle it and to build a moral society in the world. This paper may help us to reflect on the degradation of moral values in the society. This awareness of sexual morality may guide us to lead a good life in the society as well as to educate our younger generation about the same.

The Church's Teaching on Virtuous Sex and its Reception, 2017

The study analysed what people think about sex and whether what they think about sex conforms to the Catholic Church’s teachings that are primarily based on natural law. The literature review presents a brief history of how ideas about sexuality and sexual practices developed in the Catholic Church, in particular as grounded in natural law reasoning. Since teachings about sexuality are considered to be grounded “in reason”, the Church assumes that they are also communicable and credible to “all people of good will.” The actual doctrine of the Church on sexual matters is presented through a survey of its recent documents. Here, sexual practices and relations that the Church considers to be ‘irregular’ are discussed, in light of the core argument of the Church that “marriage” is the only legitimate context for sexual relations. A quantitative study using an online questionnaire was held to research the thesis question of whether the Church’s teachings about sexuality are today still considered to be reasonable or credible by people at large. The response rate was high enough that results could be compared across gender, age groups, country, religion and marital status. While there were responses from across the world a significant portion of respondents were Maltese which enabled a more thorough analysis of Maltese people’s views about sexuality and the church’s teachings on sexuality. Major findings include that while in Malta the Roman Catholic religion still shapes people’s morals, acceptance of artificial contraception is very common, irrespective of one’s religion, even if this might be related to another major finding, that people find the language used in Church’s official teachings to be hard to understand.

This paper examines the meaning of human sexuality. It attempts to discover a dependable foundation and draw a positive outline for a human expression of sexual living contrary to certain adumbrated misconceptions which tend to put human sexuality in a negative light. The study argues in favour of its intrinsic goodness and holiness. It thus highlights sexuality, when properly expressed, as the driving force of interpersonal relations, gender difference, physical/erotic attraction, and spiritual growth. The methodology is psycho-theological and philosophical analysis of the subject matter from Christian anthropological perspective.

The book: Troubling Ethical waters: A Christian Perspective of Human Sexuality, written by a university don, moral theologian/Christian ethicist, chaplain and catholic priest of the Makurdi Diocese, Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Pius Ajiki, is a twelve-chapter work with two appendixes which centers on contentious and very topical ethical issues of global concern and the response of the catholic church to the identified issues. The work under review adopts a logical and critical analysis of some of the absolute teachings of the Catholic Church. The motivation to do this stems from the Papacy through the constructive revolutionary thought of Professor Joseph Ratzinger new Pope Benedict xvi. He observes in one of his writings that ‘not all things that exist in the church must, for that reason be equally legitimate tradition’. He stresses that ‘not every tradition that arises in the church is a true celebration and keeping present the mystery of Christ’. He further argues that there is a distorting, as well as legitimate tradition… (and)… consequently, tradition must not be considered only affirmatively but also critically’. Clearly, the work under consideration is premised on the revolutionary thinking that though tradition may be adored and even savoured, it must not only be affirmatively considered but critically too. In his discussion of ‘The Ethics of Sexuality in Christian Perspective’ as a curtain raiser on ethical issues discussed in chapter one, Very Rev. Fr. (Dr) Ajiki though admits the difficulty of sexual morality as a subject of analysis, re-echoes the Catholic Church’s position on sexuality pointing out two purposes of sexual relationship: “unitive” and “procreative”. He adds that to exercise responsible sexuality in practice, the couple must be intentionally committed to a permanent partnership and love.

Crisis in the Church: On the Faith of Mary as the Pathway to Peace. Ed. Roger Nutt. Sapientia Press: Baltimore, 2019

The crisis in the Church is a crisis of betrayal: those who freely accepted the charge of safeguarding Christ’s teachings, of being minsters of his sacraments, and of guiding his flock to salvation broke faith with both Christ and his flock. The betrayal consists of cover-ups, the protection and enabling of the criminals, and the subsequent failure of the bishops to repent of these. But the full extent of the crisis can be grasped only in light of the sacred character of human sexuality and its consequent centrality in the meaning and vocation of the human person. The special character of human sexuality, in turn, reveals why the intimate sphere is a unique locus of battle between God and his enemy for the human soul.

2018

As a result of the Cartesian dichotomy of external reality and the inner mind, the physical body has no end purpose, or telos, within the modern West. Postmodern philosophy sees the body as irrelevant when one’s identity is grounded in how one feels in their mind. Such beliefs have led to the surge of homosexual tendencies within modern culture. While the modern understanding of sexuality is complicated, the West must begin to adhere to the “psycho-physical unity” of mind and body that the Christian worldview promotes for total human flourishing.

In his work, The Ethics, Aristotle pointed out that men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives. This is also true when revolutionary changes are cultural. What might these ―private‖ reasons be, and why do they become public in the form of failure. But for any individual, moral failure is hard to live with because of the rebuke of conscience. Habitual moral failure, what used to be called vice, can be lived with only by obliterating conscience through rationalization. When we rationalize, we convince ourselves that forbidden desires are permissible. In this case and with this thinking, the reality of moral order is replaced with something more congenial to the activity that one is trying to excuse. And this obviously explains why in 1973, after several years of bitter dispute, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, its official list of mental diseases, leaving the whole world, especially Nigeria, reeling in the face of this awkward pronouncement. Of course, the politics of homosexuality is not the only issue here. It stands as a mere representation of the contemporary political agenda to promote a culture of vices in the modern world by some ‗dark forces‘, with a sophisticated machinery of secularism. The target is to thwart the reality of the moral order put in place by God, exemplified in Christ‘s teachings and reiterated by the apostles, especially Paul (1Cor 5-7). Issues about marriage, family, human sexuality, etc. have all come under severe attack in our modern world. Highly pathetic is the immovable attraction of the defenders of this sexual revolution. Their arguments are always couched in terms of rights, or individual desires-what I want, what I may pursue. They are totally blind to the fact that this sexual laissez-faire destroys the common good, by undermining families and rotting whole neighbourhoods from within. 2 The moral laxity evident today bears semblance with the situation in Corinth which impelled Paul to give a pastoral response as principally enunciated in his First Letter to the Corinthians, chapters 5-7. There was a great deal of sexual laxity in the city of Corinth, just as we have it today in our contemporary sex-saturated culture. It was a promiscuous society with a philosophy similar to that of today‘s world: Sex is a normal physical function, so why not use it as you please? Paul pointed out that God created sex when He made the first man and woman, and therefore He has the right to tell us how to use it. The Bible is the ―owner‘s manual‖ and it must be obeyed. Therefore, the task of this work is to evaluate the contemporary sexual game in the light of Pauline sexual ethics in order to make bold the ideal perspective of human sexuality and marriage, as God has ordered them for the salvation of the world. This research is going to be theological as well as exegetical. The brief exegetical analysis of the pericope will be done for the purpose of right interpretation and evaluation of the intricate issues that underline this Pauline thought. The work is timely and purposely. The relevance of our research will be brought to the limelight in the chapters that expose the sexual politics of our time and how St. Paul can be our moral and spiritual guide back to the ideal of Christ

2014