Summary
Dag Oistein Endsjo: Sex and Religion
From bachelor parties to god-pleasing homosexuality
Religion forbids and enjoins sex, condemns and blesses, punishes and rewards. The sex of our sexual partner, marital status, skin color, religion and caste can lead us to salvation or to damnation.
While Christian adolescent girls in America attend balls where they promise God to abstain from sex until they get married, Buddhist monks understand homosexual relations as a sacred secret. There is no simple explanation for the relationship between sex and religion. In Norway, public debates focus on the place of homosexuals in the church. Others wonder if there should be a death penalty for forbidden heterosexual relations, if promiscuity causes hurricanes and floods. Does God condemn marriage between blacks and whites, can people have sex in heaven? The book deals with the attitudes of different religions towards sexuality, sexual racism and sex with demons, forced sex and celibacy, divorce and polygamy. As well as the question of why some sexual rules are emphasized, while others are forgotten.
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.