Abstract
This paper examines the Christian ideas and practices concerning sexuality. It connects a wide array of long-term historical facts: the identification of the Original Sin to sex, the institution of Celibacy for the clergy, the growing canonical impediments to the marriage between kinsfolk and the conflicts it aroused between laity and clergy. The Christian Church, prior to the Reform, created a Pantheon (the Trinity and the Holy Family) based on kin relationships, excluding sexual reproduction, and shaped itself after this model, as an utopian brotherhood of believers. The Christian sexual morals derive from this invention of an utopian society rather than from archaic patriarchal ethics. In this sense, there are sheer parallels to current trends concerning sex, gender and family.
Keywords
sexuality; Christianity; celibacy; marriage; utopia