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Is the Church too negative about sex?
Beginning with this provocative question, Fr. Lawrence Farley explores the history of the Church’s attitude toward sex and marriage, from the Old Testament through the Church Fathers in his new book One Flesh: Salvation through Marriage in the Orthodox Church. He persuasively makes the case both for traditional morality and for a positive acceptance of marriage as a viable path to theosis.
About the author
Archpriest Lawrence Farley currently pastors St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church (OCA) in Langley, B.C., Canada. He received his B.A. from Trinity College, Toronto, and his M.Div. from Wycliffe College, Toronto. A former Anglican priest, he converted to Orthodoxy in 1985 and studied for two years at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary in Pennsylvania. He has also published the multivolume Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series, as well as The Christian Old Testament: Looking at the Hebrew Scriptures through Christian Eyes and Let Us Attend: A Journey Through the Orthodox Divine Liturgy.
Posts
I would have to read the book. There is a potential flaw from the title. Marriage may indeed be blessed by God as the path to holiness and to salvation for a particular married couple. We already know that. Many modern minds, however, are going to want to make a insupportable leap of thought, and allege that sex itself is a tool toward theosis. People just do not want to accept that there was no sexual activity prior to The Fall. While sex is blessed within marriage, don't elevate it to anything more than it is. (I am married with four living children, so clearly have no opposition to what God gave to my life.)
ReplyDeleteAs is often the case in the publishing industry, the title of this book was chosen not by the author but by the publisher; so it is best not to take too much from a title on its own. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Matushka. I look forward to reading it.
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