The Power of Erotic Celibacy

The Power of Erotic Celibacy
Author: Lisa Isherwood
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2006-04-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780567082770

Examines the significance that celibacy may hold in the modern millennium. This book considers the female body, how it has been used to underpin exploitative social systems, and how Christianity has tried to control the bodies of women through regulations about the female body.

The Power of Erotic Celibacy

The Power of Erotic Celibacy
Author: Lisa Isherwood
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2006-04-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780567082671

This title considers various issues regarding celibacy and Christianity including the following: how the female body is used to underpin exploitative social systems, how Christianity has tried to control the bodies of women through regulations about the female body, how women have used celibacy to subvert the social order, how radical incarnationalism and queer theory create new challenges to traditional understandings of celibacy, how being erotic and celibate may manifest in social, sexual and political ways. It also explores how being erotically celibate challenges patriarchal society and opens up new theological understanding.

Celibacies

Celibacies
Author: Benjamin Kahan
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2013-11-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0822377187

In this innovative study, Benjamin Kahan traces the elusive history of modern celibacy. Arguing that celibacy is a distinct sexuality with its own practices and pleasures, Kahan shows it to be much more than the renunciation of sex or a cover for homosexuality. Celibacies focuses on a diverse group of authors, social activists, and artists, spanning from the suffragettes to Henry James, and from the Harlem Renaissance's Father Divine to Andy Warhol. This array of figures reveals the many varieties of celibacy that have until now escaped scholars of literary modernism and sexuality. Ultimately, this book wrests the discussion of celibacy and sexual restraint away from social and religious conservatism, resituating celibacy within a history of political protest and artistic experimentation. Celibacies offers an entirely new perspective on this little-understood sexual identity and initiates a profound reconsideration of the nature and constitution of sexuality.

Sensual Celibacy

Sensual Celibacy
Author: Donna Marie Williams
Publisher: Touchstone
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999-03-11
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 9780684833514

ABSTINENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW STRONGER If you're single and in between relationships -- or just about to embark on a new one -- then you can't underestimate the importance of making the right choices when it comes to physical intimacy. When should it happen? If it's already a part of your relationship, is it meaningful to both of you? Is there a strong emotional foundation in place? Or did you jump right in -- and get hurt? And how can you preserve your self-respect the next time around? Donna Marie Williams wrestled with these questions for years until she discovered the empowering nature of celibacy: abstaining from sex for a self-determined time while embracing new opportunities for self-discovery, personal growth, and heightened self-esteem. Now she shares her knowledge in a simple but effective 10-step program that will help you lead a happier, healthier, and even sexier life. Sensual Celibacy reveals: * Why charting your relationship history can be a real eye opener * How celibacy can help you focus on what you really want out of life * Ways to stay true to your celibacy commitment, even if you're in a relationship * When to end your celibacy, with intelligence, confidence, and joy If you're ready to rethink your approach to relationships and reconnect with yourself, then let Sensual Celibacy guide you to a happier, healthier lifestyle.

Eros, Consciousness and Kundalini

Eros, Consciousness and Kundalini
Author: Stuart Sovatsky
Publisher: New Age Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2003
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9788178221793

In This Extraordinary Celebration Of The Erotic, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky Introduces The Readers To The Tantric Art Of Sexual Sublimation, In Which Sex Is Redirected Toward Achieving Higher Awareness And An Erotic Satisfaction For Beyond That Possible Through Intercourse.

Erotic Attunement

Erotic Attunement
Author: Cristina L. H. Traina
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0226811379

Heightened awareness of the problem of sexual abuse has led to deep anxiety over adults touching children—in nearly any context. Though our society has moved toward increasingly strict enforcement of this taboo, studies have shown that young children need regular human contact, and the benefits of breastfeeding have been widely extolled. Exploring the complicated history of love, desire, gender, sexuality, parenthood, and inequality, Erotic Attunement probes the disquieting issue of how we can draw a clear line between natural affection toward children and perverse exploitation of them. Cristina L. H. Traina demonstrates that we cannot determine what is wrong about sexual abuse without first understanding what is good about appropriate sensual affection. Pondering topics such as the importance of touch in nurturing children, the psychology of abuse and victimhood, and recent ideologies of motherhood, she argues that we must expand our philosophical and theological language of physical love and make a distinction between sexual love and erotic love. Taking on theological and ethical arguments over the question of sexuality between unequals, she arrives at the provocative conclusion that it can be destructive to completely bar eroticism from these relationships.

Queering Wesley, Queering the Church

Queering Wesley, Queering the Church
Author: Keegan Osinski
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2021-07-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725254034

Fifty years after Stonewall, the experiences of LGBTQ+ Christians are—rightfully—beginning to be received with interest by their churches. Queering Wesley, Queering the Church presents a prototype for thinking about Wesleyan holiness as an expansive openness to the love and grace of God in queer Christian lives rather than the limiting and restrictive legalism that is sometimes found in Wesleyan theology and praxis. This inventive project consists of queer readings of ten John Wesley sermons. Reading these sermons from a queer perspective offers the church a fresh paradigm for theological innovation, while remaining in line with the tradition and legacy of Wesley that is so central and generative to Wesleyan churches. Arguing that a coherent line of thought can be drawn from Wesley’s conception of holiness to the queer, holy lives of LGBTQ+ Christians, Queering Wesley, Queering the Church playfully utilizes queer theory in a way that is fully compatible with Wesleyan teaching. This book aims to be a first step in seriously considering the theological voices of LGBTQ+ Christians in the Wesleyan tradition as a valuable asset to a vital church.

Religion, Transformation and Gender

Religion, Transformation and Gender
Author: Kurt Appel
Publisher: V&R unipress GmbH
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre:
ISBN: 3737005486

The fifth issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society (J-RaT) centers on the topic of religion, transformation and sex/gender. The focal point will be on religious and cultural transformation processes and their repercussions on gender roles, constructs and representations on the one hand, and on sex and/or gender transformations which are embedded in the context of specific religious traditions on the other. Transformation is understood here as change, alteration and reformatting. The multifaceted connections between religion, transformation and sex/gender are concretized in an abundance of material and symbolic phenomena and are examined starting from different subject-specific and methodical approaches.

The Embrace of Eros

The Embrace of Eros
Author: Margaret D. Kamitsuka
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2010-01-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451413513

The topic of sexuality intersects directly with the most contested historical, theological, and ethical questions of our day. In this edgy yet profound volume, noted scholars and theologians assay the Christian tradition's classic and contemporary understandings of sex, sexuality, and sexual identity. The project unfolds in three phases: contemporary assessments of the Christian tradition, new thinking about eros and being human religiously, and new perspectives on classic mysteries in light of eros and embodiment.

Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire

Regulating Sex in the Roman Empire
Author: David Wheeler-Reed
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2017-11-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300231318

A New Testament scholar challenges the belief that American family values are based on “Judeo-Christian” norms by drawing unexpected comparisons between ancient Christian theories and modern discourses Challenging the long-held assumption that American values—be they Christian or secular—are based on “Judeo-Christian” norms, this provocative study compares ancient Christian discourses on marriage and sexuality with contemporary ones, maintaining that modern family values owe more to Roman Imperial beliefs than to the bible. Engaging with Foucault’s ideas, Wheeler-Reed examines how conservative organizations and the Supreme Court have misunderstood Christian beliefs on marriage and the family. Taking on modern cultural debates on marriage and sexuality, with implications for historians, political thinkers, and jurists, this book undermines the conservative ideology of the family, starting from the position that early Christianity, in its emphasis on celibacy and denunciation of marriage, was in opposition to procreation, the ideological norm in the Greco-Roman world.