One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics

by Alexander R. Pruss

This important philosophical reflection on love and sexuality from a broadly Christian perspective is aimed at philosophers, theologians, and educated Christian readers. Alexander R. Pruss focuses on foundational questions on the nature of romantic love and on controversial questions in sexual ethics on the basis of the fundamental idea that romantic love pursues union of two persons as one body. One Body begins with an account, inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas, of the general nature of love as constituted by components of goodwill, appreciation, and unitiveness. Different forms of love, such as parental, collegial, filial, friendly, fraternal, or romantic, Pruss argues, differ primarily not in terms of goodwill or appreciation but in terms of the kind of union that is sought. Pruss examines romantic love as distinguished from other kinds of love by a focus on a particular kind of union, a deep union as one body achieved through the joint biological striving of the sort involved in reproduction. Taking the account of the union that romantic love seeks as a foundation, the book considers the nature of marriage and applies its account to controversial ethical questions, such as the connection between love, sex, and commitment and the moral issues involving contraception, same-sex activity, and reproductive technology. With philosophical rigor and sophistication, Pruss provides carefully argued answers to controversial questions in Christian sexual ethics.

Genres: Philosophy, Christianity, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, Catholic, Sexuality

478 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2012

About the author

Canadian philosopher, mathematician. Pruss's philosophical thought reflects Christian orthodoxy. He is a Roman Catholic and a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers.

Pruss defends the principle of sufficient reason (PSR), claiming that it is self-evident, and arguing that the rejection of PSR creates problems in epistemology, modality, ethics, and even evolutionary theory.

Pruss is a critic of David Lewis's "extreme modal realism," and instead gives "a combined account" of Leibnizian and Aristotelian modality, which integrates the "this-worldly capacities" of the Aristotelian view and Leibniz's account of possible worlds as thoughts in the mind of God.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philosophically rigorous; excellent exegetical and theological insights. This is by far the best book I have read on Christian sexual ethics. Pruss, of course, is a Roman Catholic, so you know what conclusions will be drawn about questions such as non-coital acts of sexual expression in marriage and bioethical questions like IVF. But such conclusions are certainly not arrived at by a "Thus says the Church." They are arrived at by philosophically rigorous arguments--arguments which I find to be compelling.

[Jeremy]

When Sherif Girgis spoke at Baylor, he said this book was the best he has ever read on the subject. Pruss is a philosophy professor at Baylor.

[Jon Delmendo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would really love to see a logical rigorous defense of Catholic views on sexuality. This book relies heavily on organic metaphors and piles metaphor upon metaphor. Essentially it's an argument from poetry. If you find it difficult to see what necessitates the very strong views Catholics have about marriage being until death, condoms, pornography, coitus interruptus, etc. this book probably won't help much.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text is a good companion to equip yourself with just about every logical, rhetorical and theological argument you could need to defend the essential Catholic views on human sexuality. It is thorough, sometimes exhaustively so, and tackles all areas - from marriage, contraception (in all its forms), nonmarital sexual acts, IVF and other noncoital forms of reproduction, celibacy and more.

[Pietro Mola · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best treatment of the subject I have ever read — clear, convincing, and honest about where the arguments lead. I will have to re-read it because I got a bit burnt out at the end, but this is truly the most persuasive work on the subject I have read. Pruss's focus on the union of "one body" provides a much richer and more common-sense reading of the nature and importance of sex than a strict Thomistic or new natural law reading. Furthermore, it keeps the clear intrinsic importance of sex as a loving act, pace Foucault and the post-modernists. No teaching of the Church gives me more pause than its teachings on sex but Dr. Pruss did smooth that vary jagged way a bit for me.