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Talk:Birth Control and Contraception

556 bytes added, 20:39, July 9, 2018
Hayward article
:I’d also be interested in the criteria you use to classify or identify theologians. --[[User:Gmharvey|Gmharvey]] ([[User talk:Gmharvey|talk]]) 11:12, July 9, 2018 (UTC)
This is taking too much time, so just a few remarks. (1) No one is asking that sex between a couple is unrelated to procreation, all things being equal. The quote from St Maximus the Confessor doesn't really say what you seem to want it to say. He criticizes the man "who seeks in it ONLY sensual pleasure...." Moreover, I would not categorize the unitive aspect of lovemaking ever as "ONLY sensual pleasure." This is perhaps why, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church does not classify NFP as contraception. Besides, the ''Song of Songs'' is pleasure through and through, with no mention of children or childbearing! As for St Nikodemos, his theology ways in many ways quite Catholic - I shouldn't be surprised that he took a Roman view of Onan. Verse 18 of the Leviticus passage deals with emissions stemming from intercourse; vv 16-17 dealt with nocturnal emissions. The Eastern Fathers (with the exception of Epiphanios) did not see Onan's sin as one of contraception. It was his disobedience of God and the law on Levirate marriage. There was no law about ''coitus interruptus'', much less a death penalty for it.One final comment on Onan, this time from Jacob Milgrom's Leviticus commentary: "May a married couple practice coitus interrupts? The example of Onan (Gen 38.8-10) is irrelevant. His act is condemned because he refused to act as the lever and thus denied an heir to his deceased brother.... the silence of our text would permit the inference that birth control was not prohibited as long as the couple had reproduced. This, indeed, is the opinion of the rabbis: two males according to R. Shammai.... and one male and one female according to R. Hillel...."
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