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Whose Sexuality? Whose Tradition? Women, Experience, and Roman Catholic Sexual Ethics

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Part of the book series: Theology and Medicine ((THAM,volume 1))

Abstract

This essay focuses on the position of women vis-à-vis “tradition” — the process by which a religious community hands on, from generation to generation, the wisdom of the past, in this case, wisdom concerning human sexuality. From my perspective as a woman, the materials concerning sexuality usually encompassed by the phrase “the Roman Catholic tradition” are a painful and sometimes repulsive collection. Misogyny, distrust of the body, and antipathy toward sexuality are found in too many classic Catholic theological sources. Reexamining the tradition from a perspective that affirms women’s struggles for sexual wholeness, I have gained a heightened sense of the scope, complexity, and ambiguity of my church’s moral memories.

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Andolsen, B.H. (1992). Whose Sexuality? Whose Tradition? Women, Experience, and Roman Catholic Sexual Ethics. In: Green, R.M. (eds) Religion and Sexual Health. Theology and Medicine, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7963-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7963-6_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4160-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7963-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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