One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics

478 Pages·2012·1.16 MB·English

by  Alexander R. Pruss

ONE

w
body
An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics
ALEXANDER R. PRUSS
On e B Ody
nOtre dame StudieS in ethicS and culture
series editor, David Solomon
One

w
body
An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics
AlexAnder r. Pruss
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2013 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pruss, Alexander R.
One body : an essay in Christian sexual ethics / Alexander R. Pruss.
p. cm. — (Notre Dame studies in ethics and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-268-03897-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-268-03897-X (pbk. : alk. paper) — E-ISBN 978-0-268-08984-9
1. Sex—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Sex role—Religious aspects—
Christianity. 3. Sexual ethics. 4. Christian ethics. I. Title.
BT708.P75 2012
241'.66—dc23
2012036268
∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam

Contents
acknowledgments ix

introduction 1

chapter 1
love and its Forms 8

chapter 2
desire 49

chapter 3
the meaningfulness of Sexuality 61

chapter 4
One Flesh, One Body 89

chapter 5
union, commitment, and marriage 158

chapter 6
contraception and natural Family Planning 263

chapter 7
Sexual Pleasure and noncoital Sexual activity 328

chapter 8
Same-Sex attraction 359

chapter 9
reproduction and technology 379

chapter 10
celibacy 419

chapter 11
notes 422

Bibliography 443

index 452

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank David Alexander, Michael Almeida, Michael
Beaty, Ron Belgau, Todd Buras, Sarah Coakley, Mike Darcy, Stephen
Evans, Ted Furton, Richard Gale, Sherif Girgis, Alfonso Gomez-
Lobo, Luke Gormally, Germain Grisez, David Jeffrey, Christian Jen-
ner, Daniel Johnson, Christopher Kaczor, Mark Lance, Patrick Lee,
Ron Lee, James Lennox, David Manley, Richard Manning, Lawrence
Masek, Anthony McCarthy, Mark Murphy, Adam Pelser, Amy Pruss,
Richard Sisca, Abigail Tardiff, Nicholas Teh, Eric Telfer, two anony-
mous readers, the students in my Philosophy of Love and Sex classes
at Georgetown and Baylor, and various commenters on my own blog
(http://AlexanderPruss.blogspot.com) and on the former RightRea-
son blog, for encouragement, discussion, disagreement, comments,
and/or suggestions concerning various parts of this project.
Particular thanks are due to Emily Glass, who has stylistically
improved just about every page of this book, and has gone over and
above the call of duty by contributing important philosophical com-
ments as well. I take full responsibility for the remaining infelicities,
some of which are no doubt due to my not following her advice at
every point.
Much of this book was written while I was at Georgetown Uni-
versity, and I am grateful to Georgetown University for summer re-
search support.
ix