Must Christianity Be Violent?: Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology <\/a> ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=leithartcom-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003E7F09C\")
, Milbank points out that \u201cthe monasticization of the whole of society is much more difficult than the monasticization of the celibate few\u201d (197). Any attempt to establish a quasi-monastic way of life for laity has to reckon with sex and conflict in ways that monks don\u2019t have to. And the two are parallel: \u201cthe placing of sex outside the purview of the sacred is in a way highly parallel to the absolute condemnation of warfare.\u201d Both exhibit a form of clericalism that makes it difficult to see how \u201ca lay Christian can be a Christian at all.\u201d <\/p>\n Chivalry represented resistance to this clericalism: \u201cthe elaboration of the notion of chivalry was . . . an attempt to elaborate a lay theology . . . . This lay theology resisted an unintelligent clerical squeamishness about sex: as the Roman de la Rose <\/em> asks, if clerical chastity is the \u2018highest\u2019 path and yet grace is offered to all, how is this consistent with God\u2019s approval of nature and generation? Only the Olympian gods, the authors of this work argue, were jealous of the human physical bliss of the Golden Age: such an attitude is alien to the God of creation and grace, and therefore sexual puritanism is pagan and not Christian.\u201d <\/p>\n Chivalry also resisted \u201cclerical preciosity concerning conflict . . . . if clerical nonviolence is \u2018the highest,\u2019 then fighting a just war would imperil one\u2019s salvation, at least to some degree. If some wars are just, they lie therefore within the scope of providence, and such impairment therefore seems inconsistent with divine justice and grace.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his contribution to Must Christianity Be Violent?: Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology , Milbank points out that \u201cthe monasticization of the whole of society is much more difficult than the monasticization of the celibate few\u201d (197). Any attempt to establish a quasi-monastic way of life for laity has to reckon with sex and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n
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