christian teachings on extra/premarital sex

adultery

• A married person having sexual relations with someone other than their marriage partner 

• Very few people would ever argue that adultery is acceptable. This is because committing adultery involves breaking your marriage vows and being unfaithful to your partner.  

• This would almost invariably cause emotional harm to your partner. There are a few cases in which adultery might be regarded as the lesser of two evils but in general it would be frowned upon. Adultery used to be one of the grounds for divorce under UK law. 

promiscuity + catholicism

• Criticized often in the OT: used as a metaphor to describe Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness 

• 1 corinthians 6:18-20 -> flee from sexual immorality’, ‘sexually immoral person sins against his own body’ (body = temple of HS) 

• Marriage only proper context for sexual relations 

• Catcheism criticises fornication as it is seen as distortion of god-given purpose of sexuality: love, commitment and openness to life 

• Catholic church consistently opposed modern cultural trends that normalise/ celebrate promiscuity (incl sexual liberation movement) 

promiscuity + liberal

• Liberal christians argue that an emphasis should be placed on context, consent, and mutual respect rather than a strict adherence to traditional rules. 

• Discourage dangerous promiscuity (irresponsible, expliitative, harmful), but less condemnatory and focus on personal conscience, love and justice in relationships 

• e.g. UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST argues that sexual ethics based on justice, equality and mutual consent should be explored rather than rigid legalism 

biblical teachings on pre/extra marital sex OT

• OT: women were expected to be virgins when they were married, so a man could know that his children were his (so he could pass on his birthright to them) 

• 7^th of 10 commandments prohibits adultery -> punishment was death by stoning for both man and women 

• Adultery on part of wife was seen as giving the husband the right to divorce 

• Genesis story of Adam and Eve can also be taken as providing  a basis for good sexual relationships and genesis 2:24 suggests that marriage is the appropriate context for sexual relationships, ruling out pre-marital and extra-marital sex 

• ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh’ 

biblical teachings on pre/extra marital sex NT

• In the New Testament, Jesus only criticizes one kind of sexual sin: adultery. In Mark, he quotes the passage from Genesis above and seems to imply that marriage is sacred (‘…what God has joined together, let man not separate’) and therefore the appropriate context for sexual relations. 

• Finally, St Paul (an early Christian convert) in a letter to the Corinthians includes ‘adulterers’ in a list of those who ‘will not inherit the kingdom of God’. 

augustine

• Sex means through which original sin was transmitted 

• Sexual desire seen as a sign of mankind’s fallen state and an expression of concupiscence (self-centred and lustful desire) 

• Marriage seen as a way of restricting these tendencies -> pre/extra marital sex is indulging in concupiscence 

aquinas

• Less emphasis on marriage as the containment for sin 

• Extended NML, arguing that if the pp of sex is procreation then purpose of marriage is providing stable environment for children to be brought up in 

• Therefore condemned extra-marital sex 

harvey cox

• (american liberal theologian) 

• What is important is a relationship of love; whether the couple are married or not doesn’t matter 

• In a world of fluid relationships, extramarital sex is sometimes inevitable 

• However, a symptom that a relationship may have broken down 

• Couple should recognise this, and in love and charity, move on  

cohabitation

• Liberal christians accept cohabitation provided that the relationship is an expression of love and not casual in nature 

• However, pope JP2 argue that such relationships lack commitment and trust, and weaken the sense of fidelity inspired by the sacrament of marriage 

• Marriage can therefore provide the only valid context for sexual relationships