See the original post to see what this is about.
Leithart says that the Bible speaks not only of spiritual things, but also hair, blood, sweat, entrails, menstruation, and genital emissions. Theologians on the other hand (except for perhaps Augustine) rarely make any mention of these. It’s a blanket statement intended to shock, of course, but is it true nonetheless? Are theologians from another planet? Let’s find out…
In this round: Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Of all the fathers of the church, St. Augustine was the most admired and the most influential during the Middle Ages… Augustine was an outsider – a native North African whose family was not Roman but Berber… He was a genius – an intellectual giant.
-Norman Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages
According to Google Books, these words occur X number of times in his printed works:
- hair – 68
- sweat – 25
- entrails – 13
- menstruation – 4
- genital emissions – 45
For the challenge of theological language, Leithart asserts that Augustine doesn’t count:
Augustine’s theology is as big reality, or bigger.
And indeed, he scores high across the board in this little word game.
He speaks of proper hair-style being a prerequisite to instruction on humility:
Nor am I concerned with those who seek to please, either with dress more elegant than the needs of their high calling demand, or with a bandeau conspicuous whether with protruding knots of hair or with veils so thin that the hair-nets lying below become visible. These people are not yet to be instructed on humility, but on chastity itself or on virgin purity. Give me one who proclaims lifelong continence, and who is free of these and all such vices and blemishes of behavior.
-Augustine, On Holy Virginity, Sec. 34
Sweat is mentioned in a passage on people with special, um, skills. Now where is the last theology book you saw farting addressed?
I myself have known a man who was accustomed to sweat whenever he wished. It is well know that some wep when they please, and shed a flood of tears…Some, so accurately mimic the voices of birds and beasts and other men, that, unless they are seen, the difference cannot be told. Some have such command of their bowels, that they can break wind continuously at pleasure.
-Augustine, The City of God, Ch.24
Finally, this passage takes the cake, especially with it’s connection to this entire exercise.
In Paradise [before the fall], in such happy circumstances and general human well-being we should be far from suspecting that offspring could not have been begoten without the disease of lust, but those parts, like all the rest, would be st in motion at the command of the will; and without the seductive stimulus of passion, with calmness of mind and wit no corrupting of the integrity of the body.
We must believe that the male semen could have been introduced into the womb of the wife with the integrity of the femail genital organ being preserved, just as now, with the same integrity being safe, the menstrual flow of blood can be emitted from the womb of a virgin. To be sure, the seed could be introduced in the same way through wit the meses can be emitted.
And this last line here is important:
We speak of things which are now shameful, and although we try, as well as we are able, to conceive them as they were before they became shameful, yet necessity compels us rather to limit our discussion to the bounds set by modesty.
-Augustine, The City of God, Ch.26
Augustine had a problem with sex. Here (and for many more pages), he goes on about how before the fall, sex must have been something entirely different than what it is today, even in the best of circumstances. He goes so far as to say the physical mechanics must have been entirely different as well. Having sex for any sort of fun is very much frowned upon. This is exactly what Hans Kung was talking about in the last round when he accused Augustine of contributing to the low view of marriage and sexuality in the church for many centuries.
What’s ironic about this excercise, I think, is that Augustine is partly responsible for it. He himself spoke of the messy aspects of sex, but he did so to tell us that we SHOULD NOT speak of them. They were corrupted and had no place in holy spirituality. Has this not contribute to theologians avoiding these subjects and sticking to metaphysical things? It is theologians neglecting to wrestle with the physical world we live in that prompted Leithart to issue this little challenge in the first place. Augustine may not count, but his spiritual children do.
I’ll say one more thing. I agree with Augustine that these kinds of messy subjects should indeed be spoken of with modesty. It really is not appropriate to speak loudly of genital emissions with your friends at the cafe. It is likely not appropriate for a Sunday sermon. It would not normally be something I’d mention on this blog even. The point is, the subject should never be outside the realm of “stuff God cares about” so much that the secular and godless are always in the driver’s seat.