Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven

Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven - The Catholic Church and Sexuality[1][2] (original German title;Eunuchen für das Himmelreich - Katholische Kirche und Sexualität[3]) is a philosophical book by the German theologian Uta Ranke-Heinemann. The book is about sexual morality in the history of the Catholic Church, which she criticizes as misogynous. While this represents a late 20th Century view, and remains broadly relevant, however in some areas material has dated, because early in the 21st century Pope Francis began to address some of the issues criticized in this work[4]

The book's title comes from the Bible verse in Matthew 19.12, which could be translated as follows: 'For so: some are incapable of marriage from birth, some have been converted into it by men and some have made themselves as such - by the will of the kingdom of heaven '[5]

Among the criticisms made by the author is the ban of the Church of contraception, a position defended since 1916 that women should offer resistance in the case of sex with a condom "as if being raped" According to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, such women should fear the eternal hellfire, which according to the Catholic Church at that time, should be the punishment that follows the use of condoms) Those afflicted with sexually transmitted infections should suffer as the martyrs for the faith"

From June 3, 1916, the official dogma from Rome about sex with a condom has been that "marital chastity requires its martyrs"

Ranke-Heinemann, responding during an interview on Swiss television on January 11, 2007 regarding a BBC World report about AIDS in Africa said:

Transcript Translation
Ich klage die beiden letzten Päpste an wegen tödlicher Irreführung der Menschheit und verlange vom Vatikan, allen betroffenen Ehefrauen Afrikas und weltweit die medizinische Versorgung zu finanzieren und ihnen und ihren Familien Schadenersatz zu leisten. I accuse the last two popes of foisting a deadly deception upon humanity and demand that the Vatican should fund medical care for all the women of Africa and the world, and offer compensation to them and their families.

The author also criticizes the denial of marriage to people who are 'perpetually' sexually impotent.[6] canon law distinguishes between different types of impotence, such as impotentia coeundi , which is the inability achieve a satisfactory natural erection, and generandi impotentia , which one that indicates a failure of the sperm s to fertilise the female. In the case of impotentia coeundi was the possibility of marriage denied, in the case of impotentia generandi according to the Decree on the impotence of 1977.[7] which was no progress for paraplegics, some of whom, despite being fertile, may be unable to achieve a satisfactory erection. The author states: "”It is inhuman that the church to determine that a woman can not love a man who is unable to copulate due to a degree of injury, and that the couple should therefore live celebate and separate lives until the end of their days. "

Contents

Note: Chapter numbers are indicated by numbers in brackets (*)

Antecedents

The introduction is The District Court's Jesus and cites a Hamburg 1981 legal case which declared that "Jesus was thoroughly lust free" which the author rephrases as "joyless Redeemer". The main text explores (1) the non Christian roots of Christian Sexual Pessimism, (2) the ancient taboo against menstrual blood and its Christian consequences, (3) The New Testament and how it was understood regarding the virgin birth, celibacy and remarriage following divorce, (4) the Church fathers before Augustine and (5) family planning in antiquity, including infanticide, abortion and contraception.

Augustinian effects

The author regards the Christian saint Augustine of Hippo as (6) "The man who fused Christianity together with a hatred of sex" and (7) the evolution of celibacy, dating from antiquity, and adopted into Christian mysticism until 1139 when it was imposed on all Catholic clerics. (8) the celibates' fear of women as a temptation and (9) the resulting suppression of female roles effectively turned (10) lay people into monks. Although the early church urged morality, such strictures became legalized, and (penitentials) and punishment tables appeared.

Scholasticism

Two chapters deal specifically with the medieval mind and part I (12) starts with the Witches Bull and the marriage of the Lavacious and Josophite marriage. Part II (13) deals with Abelards' opposition - a tale of woe and his secret marriage proposal to the abbess Héloïse which resulted in his forcible castration.

The narrative moves on to (14) Coitus reservatus: the recipe for sinless sex, in which means a husband performing a duty to satisfy a lusty wife without himself reaching orgasm, and is distinguished from coitus distinguished from coitus interruptus, the mortal sin of withdrawal. (15) The thirteenth century is described as a golden age of theology, and the peak of misogynistic slander. The impact of (16) Thomas Aquinas "The Light of The Church" and his teachings relating to thefall of man as a sexual deviation the author claims remains significant, and goes on (17) to deal with the heightened campaign against contraception ("unnatural sex" and its legal consequences in the church, from the Middle Ages to the present. As bad as unnatural sex was unnatural intercourse or (18) incest, which was to prove very useful tool for the annulment of an inconvenient marriage. in (19) Spells for impotence, satanic loves, witches and Changelings the role of horror stories to coerce the faithful is explored.

Catholic revival

The Catholic revival was sparked by protestantism and initiated by (20) the Council of Trent in the mid 16th Century and the Casti connubii of Pope Pius the Momentus, and explors the evolution of Procrustean scale of values, with children at the top, and lust at the bottom, represented by the mere avoidance of fornication. (21) Luther, and his influence on Catholic sexual morality relates to his background as an Augustinian monk and his slight easing of the existing sexual strictures. (22) the Jansenist and Jusuit morality equates orgasm with fornication. also addressed is (23) contraception from 1500 to1750 deals with the ideal family size, illustrated by the Houyhnhnm Horses, with the upper classes permitted one descendant of each sex to preserve noble purity but servants allowed three offspring of each sex in order to staff grand estates and provide cannon fodder

Modern Period

Recent Catholic morality is outlined in (24) Pope John Paul II and sex for pleasure starts with the concept of sensuality and eroticism proposed by the gynaecologist Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde and his Calendar-based contraceptive methods. This leads into (25) the age of birth regulation in the nineteenth and 20th century. Starting with the Malthusian fear of overpopulation and Father Arthur Vermeersch, S.J. who is credited with equating condoms with rape. It moves on to explore the Familiaris consortio of John Paul II and how Papal infallibility tends to limit theological revision. The following topic is (26) abortion and the death of the mother as a fair price for the baptism of a live infant.

The myth that (27) Onan's death was retribution for being "evil in the sight of the Lord" through being unwilling to father a child by coitus interruptus with his widowed sister-in-law was related to masturbation early in the 18th century which was supposed to cause the divine retribution of either deafness, blindness or madness. a related topic (28) is homosexuality which so appalled Paul the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans. The suggestion is by isolating the clergy from the laity the occasional 'fall from grace might be either avoided (by lack of women) or perhaps overlooked. Moving on to the () moral theology of the 20th century The ethical foundation of modern moral philosophy is described as "...extremely feeble, since there is nothing like it in the New Testament". Bernhard Häring's sins of immodesty were listed as:

Nazism

The ethics of National Socialist Germany were considered supportive of Christian Morality and the 1933 pastoral letter of Fulda thanked Hitler as "morality will no longer ravish the soul of the German People" Pleasure hating clerical celibates, it is claimed, "preferred concentration camps to Sterilization". This is contrasted with the concluding chapter (30) on Mariology which sprang from the Proto-Gospel of James, an apocryphal text of the 2nd century.

References

  1. ↑ Ranke-Heinemann, Uta (1990). Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven - The Catholic Church and Sexuality. doubleday/Penguin USA. ISBN 0140165002.
  2. ↑ Ranke-Heinemann, Uta (1990) [1988]. Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven: Women, sexuality, and the Catholic Church. translator Peter Heinegg. Garden City: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26527-1.
  3. ↑ Ranke-Heinemann, Uta (1988). Eunuchen für das Himmelreich - Katholische Kirche und Sexualität (in German). Heyne Verlag. ISBN 3453165055.
  4. ↑ BBC Pope Francis profile
  5. ↑ Translation of German: «Denn es ist so: Manche sind von Geburt an zur Ehe unfähig, manche sind von den Menschen dazu gemacht und manche haben sich selbst dazu gemacht - um des Himmelreiches willen». King James version: «For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it» [Greek original manuscript: «εἰσὶν γὰρ εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς ἐγεννήθησαν οὕτως, καὶ εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνουχίσθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν». See Matthäus A Spanish translation was published by Trotta in 1998 (ISBN 84-87699-86-3)
  6. ↑ 'impotentia coeundi' "CIC 1983, Can. 1084; Eunuchen für das Himmelreich is expanded, Heyne, Munich 2003, p. 378-385
  7. ↑ 1983 CIC c. 1084 § 1; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decree of May 13, 1977, AAS 69 (1977) 426:. ”...[it] is not necessary to ejaculate fertile sperm”
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