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Between Babel and Beast
(America and Empires in Biblical Perspective)
The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
After a series of exceedingly sensitive and profound meditations on Genesis 1-3, in which John Paul II highlights the contemporaneity and wisdom of Genesis, he suddenly turns into a nineteenth century liberal when he starts talking about sex in the Torah (Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body
He claims that the law “judges the woman differently and treats her with greater severity” than men, but provides no evidence.
He speaks of the “fundamental contradiction contained in the marriage law of the Old Testament.” He says that the legislation is accommodated to the “consciousness and practices of society at the time.” He sets up a non-existent tension between Torah and prophets. He claims that “it is difficult to avoid the impression that [the Torah's] evaluation [of sex] has a negative character, that it is “marked by an objectivism motivated by the intention of setting this area of human life in order” and is “not concerned directly with the order of the ‘heart’ but with the order of social life as a whole.” Much of the legislation is concerned with “hygiene or medicine.”
Nearly all of this is wrong. The purity laws are not about hygiene; the Tenth Word directly addresses evil sexual desire (coveting wives) and hence does deal with the heart; the prophets are not opposing Torah but calling Israel to repent of her disobedience to Torah; I don’t know where John Paul got the idea that women are more severely treated, but it is not from the Torah itself. Sexuality causes impurity, but so does skin disease and eating certain foods – this has nothing to do with a “negative evaluation” of the body, sex, or food. He’s on steadier ground in recognizing that the law’s regulation of polygamy and permission of divorce are the Lord’s response to Israel’s “hardness of heart,” but I don’t think this comes close to the level of a “fundamental contradiction.”
It’s mostly wrong, and it’s unfortunate. It would have been wonderful to have a sympathetic, careful, and accurate assessment of the Law’s legislation on sex from a theologian like John Paul.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 3, 2012 at 6:01 am
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