The Joy Burden of Sex in the Middle Ages – pt. 1 (Medieval Mondays #10a)

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Sex and sexual relationships in the Middle Ages, much like during any age, were fraught with contradictions.

Most of these contradictions stemmed from the involvement of the medieval Church in dictating proper sexual conduct.  In turn, according to Marty Williams and Anne Echols, authors of Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages, the Church’s involvement was owing to the fact that,

Many theologians were completely unable to reconcile sex and the sacred because sex was viewed as something unholy and unclean (p. 86). 

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New Year’s Resolution Redux: Taking Stock & Recommitting to Your Goals for the Year

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It’s widely agreed that most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by mid-February.

I’ve always found this perspective unduly negative and deterministic.  Yes, many people may suffer setbacks in their yearly goals during February.  Yet it’s also widely agreed that “If at first you don’t succeed…” is a valid approach to life.

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Any Given Sunday in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #9b)

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As discussed in the previous post on the medieval Church, church life in the Middle Ages was life.

The services it provided contributed to every key turning point in people’s existence.  According to John R.H. Moorman, author of Church Life in the Thirteenth Century,

It gave first, the regular worship of the Church on Sundays and weekdays.  It gave also the opportunities of Christian baptism, matrimony and burial, together with a little teaching and some spiritual direction mainly administered in the confessional.  Further, it offered to the sick and the dying spiritual comfort and perhaps, in some places, medical help as well. (p. 151)

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