While some observers might say that including this essay was self-serving insofar as it provided legal "cover" for the nude photos, I think it was a sincere commentary on the cultural environment of the time. The unattributed author covers everything from Kinsey to the Puritans and even the Bible. My favorite line is the last, "Blessed is the rebel - without him there would be no progress."
Yes, that was a very well argued essay.
ReplyDelete"Lust" - or "concupiscence" as Martin Luther and Scotus (John Knox) would have it in the early 16th century - was first isolated by Augustine "make me chaste but not yet" of Hippo, writing in the latter part of the 4th century and first part of the 5th, in what today we would call a clear case of "psychological projection" and who formulated the doctrine of Original Sin which maintains that it was Eve's sexual sin in tempting Adam that led to the Fall. Augustine of Hippo was extrapolating on the writings of Irenaeus of Lyons who, writing in the latter part of the 2nd century, was so unsure of the evolving narrative he thought that Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified at the age of 50 during the reign of Caligula but still managed to blame the Jews. As a matter fact, the Hebrew scriptures do not refer to Eve's behaviour as "sin" at all. Sin is first mentioned in respect of Cain's murdering of Abel. I wish they'd all gone to Coney to eat their baloney on a rope - while we turned Manhattan into an isle of joy.
Interesting that certain types of "sin' had to be invented.
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