Can a Christian agree with the “modern values” of Modernity about abortion and homosexuality?
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: Abortion, Church Fathers, Homosexuality, Orthodoxy, Sodomy.
Today, many people insist that their body belongs to them and they are free to use it as they want. Some argue that homosexuality and abortion are morally reprehensible and other try to embody in a law their moral or immoral convictions. Christianity refuses sodomy and abortion. God forbids the killing of innocent human beings because we are made in his image. Moreover, according to the doctrine of the Orthodox Church, fetus is a perfect human being since its conception. As for homosexuality, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, or Eve and Mary. Of course, a very small percentage of homosexuals indicate a genetic basis for their homoerotic sexual orientation. Is homosexuality accepted by Christianity in this case? What do the Church Fathers believe about that? People who support abortions argue that it is up to the woman to decide whether it is right for her to have an abortion because it is her body. Some Christians believe that a woman has a right to a safe abortion, and that it shows compassion if the law allows this. Here is the mistake, our body does not belong to us, it is a creature of God, and we should pray for the miracle in any case. We are the directors of our body, not the masters. Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christian believe that abortion is morally wrong because of their belief that human life begins at conception. They may make an exception if an abortion is essential to save the life of the mother (the 'principle of double effect'), assuming all efforts have been made to save the fetus. So, the sin of wilfully aborting a child, except in those very rare situations where it may be necessary to save the life of the mother, is a sinful act, totally contrary to the will of God. Additionally, the homosexuality is condemned in the Bible and by Church Fathers. Is there a common place between traditional and modern values? How can religious people face these new “values”?
The Myth of Lot in Genesis 19 and its Implications in Sexual Education During the Middle Ages
Andrea A. M. GATTI
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Allegory, Cave cult, Homosexuality, Hospitality, Incest.
An accurate understanding of sexual relations described in Lot’s parable in Genesis 19 constitutes an interesting key to the analysis of this episode and to its exegetic interpretation throughout the Middle Age. In this essay we will focus on two distinct moments of the account: first, the attempted rape of Lot’s divine guests by the populace of Sodom, then destroyed by God’s anger; second, the incestuous intercourses between Lot and his daughters in a remote cave, far from the burning cities of the Dead Sea’s plain. By comparing this passage with similar episodes in the Old Testament, we will try to explain those topoi in their historical and geographical context, by stressing the ethnic and genealogical background of this episode. Then, we will show different readings by exegetes of all the revealed religions during the Middle Age. Finally, Supported by textual and iconographical analysis, we will study the social and cultural implications of such readings in response to these violent behaviours and to the role played by facts and characters.
