Sex on Earth as It Is in Heaven

Patricia Beattie Jung

Description

This work is part of a growing chorus of theological voices raised in support of erotic desire. Although most theologians have concluded that there will be no experience of sexual desire and delight in the world to come, Patricia Beattie Jung critically examines the historical traditions and biblical rationales for this teaching. She defends an alternative claim that there will be a healed and glorified experience of sex in heaven based on a compelling account of the Christian hope for bodily resurrection. The first half of the work focuses on Christian foundations for the notion of sex in heaven, while the second goes on to discuss some of the implications of those convictions for sex on earth. Jung concludes with discussions of how best to nurture sexual delight on earth and how and why internet pornography fails in that regard.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Thinking Eschatologically about Sexuality

Sex in Heaven?

Thinking Eschatologically about Sexual Ethics

An Outline of the Argument

PART I. Sex In Heaven

1. General Resurrection of the Body
The Nature of Bodily Resurrection
Contemporary Christian Views of Death and the Hereafter
Surviving Death as a Spirit
Christian Ambivalence about the Body
The Ambiguity of the Body and Resurrection Hope
Theological Support for Hope in the Resurrection of the Body
Deconstructing Denials of Sex in Heaven

2. The New Testament about the General Resurrection of the Body
Jewish Background
Hellenistic Background
The New Testament and Resurrection: An Overview
1 Corinthians 15
Contemporary Interpretations

3. The New Testament about Sex in Heaven
Empty Tomb and Appearance Stories
Teachings of Jesus on Marriage
Teachings of Jesus on Eunuchs and Celibacy
Conclusion

4. Augustine and Other Early Christians on Sex in Heaven
Early Eschatological Speculations
Eschatological Speculations in Later Antiquity
Augustine of Hippo
Coulda? Woulda? Shoulda?

5. Reimagining Sex in Heaven
An Emerging Theology of Desire
Made for Love: Human Desire Created and Stirred
Speculations about Sexual Desire and Delight in Heaven

PART II. SEX ON EARTH

6. Transforming Sex on Earth
Facing the Whole Truth about Sex
The Call to Reform Some Experiences of Sexual Desire
The Capacity to Reform Sexual Desire

7. Cultivating Sexual Desire
Called to Cultivate Not Only Curtail Sexual Desire
Warrants for the Cultivation of Sexual Desire
Scientific Insights into No/Low Sexual Desire
Redefining Sexual Virtue

8. Pornography and the Education of Sexual Desire
Schooling Sexual Desire
Internet Pornography
From Excarnation to Incarnation

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité
• Christianity
• Ethics in religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 28 décembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 6
• EAN13: 9781438463834
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sex on Earth as It Is in Heaven
Sex on Earth as It Is in Heaven
A Christian Eschatology of Desire
PATRICIA BEATTIE JUNG
Cover image from iStockphoto.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jung, Patricia Beattie, author.
Title: Sex on earth as it is in heaven : a Christian eschatology of desire / Patricia Beattie Jung.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031463 (print) | LCCN 2016048535 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463810 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463834 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Future life—Catholic Church. | Resurrection. | Sex—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. | Desire—Religious aspects—Catholic Church.
Classification: LCC BT903 .J85 2017 (print) | LCC BT903 (ebook) | DDC 236/.2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031463
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Thinking Eschatologically about Sexuality
Sex in Heaven?
Thinking Eschatologically about Sexual Ethics
An Outline of the Argument
PART 1
SEX IN HEAVEN
Chapter 1. General Resurrection of the Body
The Nature of Bodily Resurrection
Contemporary Christian Views of Death and the Hereafter
Surviving Death as a Spirit
Christian Ambivalence about the Body
The Ambiguity of the Body and Resurrection Hope
Theological Support for Hope in the Resurrection of the Body
Deconstructing Denials of Sex in Heaven
Chapter 2. The New Testament about the General Resurrection of the Body
Jewish Background
Hellenistic Background
The New Testament and Resurrection: An Overview
1 Corinthians 15
Contemporary Interpretations
Chapter 3. The New Testament about Sex in Heaven
Empty Tomb and Appearance Stories
Teachings of Jesus on Marriage
Teachings of Jesus on Eunuchs and Celibacy
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Augustine and Other Early Christians on Sex in Heaven
Early Eschatological Speculations
Eschatological Speculations in Later Antiquity
Augustine of Hippo
Coulda? Woulda? Shoulda?
Chapter 5. Reimagining Sex in Heaven
An Emerging Theology of Desire
Made for Love: Human Desire Created and Stirred
Speculations about Sexual Desire and Delight in Heaven
PART 2
SEX ON EARTH
Chapter 6. Transforming Sex on Earth
Facing the Whole Truth about Sex
The Call to Reform Some Experiences of Sexual Desire
The Capacity to Reform Sexual Desire
Chapter 7. Cultivating Sexual Desire
Called to Cultivate Not Only Curtail Sexual Desire
Warrants for the Cultivation of Sexual Desire
Scientific Insights into No/Low Sexual Desire
Redefining Sexual Virtue
Chapter 8. Pornography and the Education of Sexual Desire
Schooling Sexual Desire
Internet Pornography
From Excarnation to Incarnation
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
T his argument was several years in the making. It was interrupted by the development and publication of other books and research projects, as well as by a major change in my teaching context. It is an understatement to say that it lost momentum more than once. Thus, it is with truly heartfelt gratitude at this happy juncture that I acknowledge the ongoing support of many colleagues who encouraged me to continue working on the manuscript. Special among these good-humored promoters of “sex in heaven” were Aana Marie Vigen, Angela Sims, and Mary Jo Iozzio. I would also like to acknowledge the support of Harold Washington, who while serving as vice president for academic affairs and dean at Saint Paul School of Theology, supported my request for a semester-long research leave in the spring of 2014, during which I was nearly able to finish drafting this book. I would also like to thank the Reverend Joy Simpson and the Reverend Dr. Melissa Browning. Their service as my graduate research assistants while I was researching this text proved invaluable. Dr. Browning also graciously agreed to help me copyedit the manuscript in its final stages. Several colleagues read and gave me much-needed feedback on various portions of the manuscript. They include Drs. James L. Bailey, Young Ho Chun, Richard Deibert, Arland Jacobson, Israel Kamudzandu, Elizabeth Leeper, Brian J. Matz, Darryl Stephens, and Edward Vacek. I am deeply indebted to the support of two editors at SUNY Press: the late Nancy Ellegate, who steadily encouraged me as I revised the manuscript, and Beth Bouloukos, who shepherded the manuscript through to production and marketing.
This book is both dedicated to and inspired by my beloved husband, colleague, and friend, the Reverend Dr. L. Shannon Jung, with whom I have enjoyed sex on earth for well over four decades and with whom I hope to celebrate life in the world to come.
Introduction
Thinking Eschatologically about Sexuality
A t the end of his volume Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church , N. T. Wright concludes that “people who believe in the resurrection, in God making a whole new world in which everything will be set right, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present.” 1 Christian convictions about life in this new creation impact Christian approaches to the transformation of life on earth here and now. Jesus taught the disciples to pray: “your will be done, on earth as in heaven ” (Matthew 6:10; emphasis added). 2 Our call as Christians includes the call to transform the world in light of our convictions about this new creation. I argue here that this includes a call to transform and cultivate our sexuality.
This book defends the notion that there might well be sex—by which I mean sexual desire and delight as well as gender—in heaven in a healed and transfigured sense. Thus the Christian mission on earth includes a call to form our sexual lives in light of those eschatological convictions. In contrast, the church has taught for the most part that there will be no experience of sexual desire or delight in heaven, though saints might be gendered as male or female. This book critically examines the rationales for the traditional view that sexual desire will not be transfigured and concludes they do not make good theological sense. This book explores the reasons for associating sexual desire and delight only with those other dimensions of life (such as disease, defect, diminishment, and death) that we hope to leave behind in the fullness of risen life. I find those arguments wanting. Why conclude this good of creation will have no enduring and glorious future? The purpose of this book is to outline a cogent, theologically well-grounded, alternative to the traditional perspective on sex in heaven in Western Christianity. I then trace the import of two of its ethical implications for our perspective(s) about sex on earth.
This work joins a growing chorus of theological voices raised in the construction of a new theology of erotic, including sexual, desire. 3 We claim that however warped our experience of sexual desire might now be—and certainly within the desire one can vividly encounter the depth of sin’s embodiment—sexual desire can be healed and transfigured so as to bear glorious witness to God. When we groan for the redemption of our bodies, we are groaning in part for the transformation, not erasure, of our experiences of sexual desire. I invite the reader to look afresh at sexual desire, to look at it with “Easter eyes,” and to consider the possibility that the eschatological hope in our bodily resurrection might well entail the eventual perfection o n earth as it is in heaven of our sexual desires.
SEX IN HEAVEN?
Theologians have for centuries imagined heaven as completely bereft of sexual desire and activity. Traditionally, most theologians—Augustine and Thomas Aquinas among them—speculate that we will remain distinctly male or female in risen life, but they retain little place for other aspects of sexuality in heaven. They argue that in risen life while some transformed experience of gender difference may abide, sexual attraction and joy will be “left behind.” Though not quite a conviction that has been held “always, everywhere, and by everybody,” the conclusion that there will be no sexual desire and delight in heaven enjoys nearly such unanimity.
The purpose of this book is to examine that conclusion critically and to develop a new theology of sexual desire that explores how it is being healed and transformed here as it might well be in the life of the world to come. If sexual activity is one of the most decisive ways humans draw near to each other, “quite physically, quite literally,” as theologian David Jensen puts it,” then it might well be a key way we draw near to, commune with, and make room for one another in glory. 4 The traditional view denies (except with regard to gender) that God intends to heal and restore this way of relating to each other. But several contemporary theologians have begun to suggest that our sexual desire, as James Alison notes—just like the rest of nature—is “capable of being gradually transformed and ordered by grace so that we are brought to flourishing starting from where we are.” 5
It might be helpful at this early juncture to differentiate my argument from some others. I will not be wrestling seriously with any Mormon-like efforts to