tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post8768942286994982295..comments2023-10-21T23:57:46.155-04:00Comments on Wheat Among Tares: Was Saint Augustine Bi-Sexual?terrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-74976154276876146922014-04-03T19:46:18.771-04:002014-04-03T19:46:18.771-04:00http://new.livestream.com/stmonica90403/live-event...http://new.livestream.com/stmonica90403/live-events?origin=stream_live&mixpanel_id=f1e5fc412689-0263be008-43681f0a-2ee000-f1e5fc4127c7d&acc_id=3180467&medium=emailDr. Corradonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-3613085489448828882014-04-03T19:44:46.521-04:002014-04-03T19:44:46.521-04:00Teri,
I think your intuitive interpretation of A...Teri, <br /><br />I think your intuitive interpretation of Augustine's varied sexual activity hits the mark well. Sexuality in his day was more than likely expressed with bi-gendered variety. <br /><br />I just watched a brilliant LIVESTREAM lenten presentation by a Father Fish at Saint Monica's Parish in Santa Monica, California. I will attempt to cut and paste a link here. I think you will find your intuitions confirmed. Dr. Corradonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-66618018486103454442011-10-21T07:47:12.037-04:002011-10-21T07:47:12.037-04:00SA,
Agreed. Modern categories don't fit neatl...SA,<br /><br />Agreed. Modern categories don't fit neatly with Roman sexual ethics or orientations.<br /><br />I use the term "bi-sexual" because it succinctly encapsulates the idea of what I'm talking about, but it is a modern term and not something that Augustine would have used as an identifier.<br /><br />I've tried to research more about this out of curiosity and I think that I am going to do another post about what I found with regard to Augustine and whether other people have contended that he had same-sex sexual relationships.terrihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-18575542199964254222011-10-20T22:28:37.609-04:002011-10-20T22:28:37.609-04:00It wouldn't have occurred to Augustine to iden...It wouldn't have occurred to Augustine to identify as a "bisexual", as people didn't define themselves by sexual orientation in those days. It is only in modern times that we've started pretending that people can be categorized into fixed buckets based on "sexual orientation" (whatever that means). Men have always been willing to shag anything that looks shaggable. If you had asked Augustine what his sexual orientation was, I suspect he would have answered, "Yes, I was sexually oriented".<br /><br />C.S. Lewis wrote an entire chapter about the rampant pederasty he witnessed in the English boarding school system. And pederasty is <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-29/opinion/22949948_1_karzai-family-afghan-men-president-hamid-karzai" rel="nofollow">still alive and well</a> in the region of the world Augustine hailed from. Note that none of the Afghan warlords consider themselves gay or even "bisexual".<br /><br />So I don't think Augustine would have even thought it relevant to describe the "orientation" of the exploits. If the behavior was as common in his time as it was in C.S. Lewis's day (and we have no reason to assume otherwise), then it would have been assumed to be common knowledge of the reader. And he (correctly, IMO) focuses not on the mechanics of which body parts are involved, but instead on the actual sin nature of the acts. Presumably it would be sinful for a man to take a slavishly subservient role toward a woman as toward another man, so it wasn't really the gender of his lover that mattered.JSAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00681934865643964687noreply@blogger.com