Sex and Religion :Teachings and Taboos in the History of World Faiths

Sex. There is probably no other realm of human experience in which religious thinking and control has had such vast reach and powerful influence. Sex and Religion is a detailed guide to the ways in which faiths have sought to repress or celebrate as well as codify almost every kind of sexual relationship and act. Is sex before or outside marriage wrong or admissible? Should nuns and priests have sex? Can sex be a religious experience? What are the pleasures and perils of celibacy? Does mutual masturbation count as sex? Then there are the questions concerning everything from polygamy and contraceptives to fellatio and sex in heaven… This book reflects on these and other contentious areas in the ongoing interrelationship of sex and religion, and examines what consequences there have been—and are today—for ‘deviant’ and ‘correct’ sex, for both the individual and society. This remarkable book—as scholarly as it is entertaining—will be of interest to anyone curious about the intersection of sex and faith—two fundamental aspects of human history and experience.