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The Puritan View of Sexuality


In a message dated 10/20/01 3:53:08 AM, Owner-Over-The-Rhine at actwin_com 
writes:

<< << the reading of 
 it by Catholic priests was discouraged by Rome for a while, and the 
 Puritans tended to ignore it.  >>

Thanks...I couldn't remember if it suffered from Catholic or Baptist censor. 
All I could recall l was that there was a move to remove it from the 
Scriptures because some thought it was pornographic in nature. >>

Puritan Sexuality is not an oxymoron or a call to celibacy.  Puritans 
actually celebrated the marriage bed and like Luther departed from the 
Catholic teaching that sex was primarily for procreation.  Their teaching on 
this was considered radical for many Christians at the time, including most 
Protestants.  This is because centuries of Catholic teaching had become the 
normative understanding.

Puritans saw sexual intimacy as a powerful connection between husband and 
wife, intended for pleasure and not just being fruitful and multiplying.  
They saw SoS as being a part of the "whole counsel of God" and thus to be 
taken as seriously as any other book in the Bible.

They also took seriously the New Testament command that husbands and wives 
should regularly come together for the purpose of mutual sexual satisfaction. 
 To do less for reasons other than a period of prayer and fasting is clearly 
taught to be not what God desires.

In fact there is an account of a wife in the Puritan movement that came to 
the elders of her church and initiated steps of church discipline against her 
husband because he was ignoring her sexually.  The elders fully supported her.

Leyland Ryken of Wheaton College has a good book about the Puritans (I can't 
remember the title and it is sitting on the shelf at my office.  E-mail me 
direct if you would like the full bibliographical info).  The name comes from 
a desire to purify the church, not primary from a desire for moral purity.  
They were concerned with living holy lives and in their understanding this 
included taking all the Biblical record with regard to sexuality into account.

The Puritans valued lives of discipline, but that does not mean that they 
were against fun.  In their understanding fun was a part of a truly 
disciplined life.  Although there church practices were fairly simple and 
devoid of frivolity, this was largely a reaction to the empty ceremony and 
casual attitude that they saw in the Church of England in their day.  Outside 
of church they enjoyed music, recreation, good food for celebration.  
Although they are primarily portrayed as dressing the black, this was not 
truly the case.

This is not to say they were without their faults.  All human beings have 
their faults and blind spots and the Puritans had theirs, individually and as 
a movement.  But, in the present day their is little recognition, even among 
Christians, of their virtues.   They have certainly gotten a "bad rap".

Watching Eternity,
Andy B.

      

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