Theology and Sexuality

One of the things I'd resolved to blog about was religion, and so far I haven't done much of that. Though I was a Computer Science major at Princeton, I was a Religion department "groupie". One of my classmates, Gene Rogers, has gone on to be a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, and among his accomplishments has been to edit the book Theology and Sexuality, an anthology of classic and contemporary readings on the topic. I've been meaning to read it for a while now, and recently received a copy as a birthday gift. I'm sure that the essays in it will provide good springboards for blogging. Many of the essays in the collection address homosexuality, but I think Gene uses that focus as a useful lever to theologically examine sexuality in general. Often one can learn a lot about the essence of something by probing its boundaries. From the introduction, Gene promises to explore such interesting questions as "What is the body for? What does marriage mean? What is the purpose of Christianity? What does God want with sex, anyway?" No doubt the theology at times may get thick. (I have to confess to only dimly comprehending the title of Gene's senior thesis, let alone its content.) As I embark on this new occasional series of blogs, a note of caution and explanation for the general readers of this blog (all two dozen of you). If you see a post tagged "Theology", you are invited to proceed at your own risk. Risk of getting lost, of glazing over, or perhaps of developing a new interest in theology.