What can the great religions teach us about pornography?

All of these ancient traditions show heavy influence from ascetic philosophy and the harsh, austere disregard for the human body. Any perspective that treats the natural world with contempt is, in my view, contemptible. Buddhist philosophy sought to show the body's repulsive features, so as to counter-balance obsessive sexual desires, a strange tactic. One can deconstruct the Abrahamic traditions rather quickly, since the Abrahamic deity had created both sexuality and the human anatomy according to those creation myths. "Lust" is an unfortunate translation arising out of medieval categories of vice and virtue. All of these traditions should be taken with some nuanced critical perspective.

The Southern form of Buddhism tends towards the ascetic and disregard of the human body. I met a monk from one of the southern schools who was not allowed to handle money or to have any contact (ie. social contact) with women. In my mind, this is a primitive form of Buddhism that has stayed stuck in pre-modern attitudes to women (much the same as those you see in the more extreme parts of the Moslem world). On the other hand, the Northern forms of Buddhism (Chan, Zen, Tibetan) see all aspects of the natural world, including the body and sex as part of enlightenment. The tenth oxherding picture symbolizes the ultimate state in Zen, which is the complete integration of the world of form and non-form, here-now.

Apparently, Christianity wasn't always as hostile toward the physical aspect as parts of it seem to have become. I remember, back in the mists of time, taking a comparative religion class that said revulsion for the human body in general, and sx in particular, entered Christian thought from North African cultures. My feeling is that this line of thinking has hung on for so long out of the recognition that sxual morality is an extremely complicated topic that a lot of people would just rather not deal with. In the long run, though, I don't think this kind of asceticism really works. As Benedict said, you have to find a way to integrate sxuality into your life, but that integration will take a different form for different individuals.

Hi guys,


Yes, the Mahayana Buddhist schools experienced some extra turns on the darhmic wheel (particularly pertinent is Nagarjuna and the Mādhyamaka school, fundamental to all Mahayana Buddhist tradition). The Hinayana schools do seem to slant more toward austerity. The “middle way”, however, between asceticism and hedonism is among the most basic precepts of all Buddhist philosophy, originating in the earliest teachings of the Buddha. The etiological myth indicates that Siddhartha tried both paths and concluded that they both resulted in more suffering than the middle path of moderation or temperance. The early Indic traditions incorporate sexuality into their various modes of spirituality. I agree with these that sexuality is mystical and spiritual, even centrally so, which is all the more reason to handle these core elements of the human psyche with proper care and wisdom.


Ascesis is the central platform upon which earliest Christian myth and praxis were based. The New Testament contains numerous ascetic dimensions. The transvaluation between the heroes of Homer and the itinerate Palestinian peasant born in a manger indicates a powerful shift in values, mostly resulting from Platonism and the broader Hellenic philosophical schools of classical antiquity. The Northern African voices that your professor likely sited were those of Tertullian and Augustine. It is a popular protestant myth that asceticism was a later accretion with which the earliest Christians and Biblical authors had not participated. The more accurate picture seems to indicate varied expressions in the late antique period, not any true innovation. Consider the earliest stratum of the Gospel tradition, namely that containing the ascetic disposition of the John the Baptizer. Paul’s philosophical orientation was very much a judaic hybrid, mostly akin to stoic asceticism. Christian asceticism has, imho, lost its credibility. Neither the Eastern nor the Western, neither the Catholics nor the Protestants, appear to have achieved a healthy sexual praxis; all of these traditions have merely produced grossly repressive modes of ascesis resulting in the panoply of scandals, scandals that may likely spell the historical end of Christian history in the Western civilization. We now, with the full advent of the information highway, are able to see what has really been going on behind the scenes, and we are all appalled.


I read the ancient sacred texts with discretion, taking into consideration the various foibles and serious hazards of ascetic practice through the ages.

As you both probably know, I am a scholar of ancient religions. So, this kind of conversation allows me to show off a bit. All that really matters is that I am dialoging with two other addicts, which breaks the spell one day at a time. ;-)

Sounds like you definitely know your stuff, A! I agree about dialoging. I'm convinced that, while we may never fully get to the bottom of this mystery of compulsive or addictive behavior, the important thing is that we keep talking. Peeling back the layers. Wish I didn't have to, but if I do, this seems like a really good place to do it. John