Religion

Anna Phan

TESP 119

Spring 2011

04/10/2011

Paper #1

How I understand Dirt, Greed, & Sexual Ethics

In New Testaments

In Dirt, Greed, & Sex: Sexual Ethics in New Testament and Their Implication for Today, William Countryman presents us recent studies of sexual ethics in the light of biblical materials. He provides us the background and also the context of sexual ethics. 283 pages of the book are divided into three parts: Dirt, Greed, and Sex. Along the book, Countryman takes us from the understanding of each main topic to the overall understanding of sexuality in today’s world. The book has helped me to have a better knowledge about sexual ethics in the New Testament and their implications for today.

Firstly, the book starts with Purity. The author explains the history and background of the concept purity through out the history. Purity in the Old Testament was physical purity. However, Countryman points out that in the New Testament, the purity code has changed to purity of the heart. Purity of heart is the love of God, of neighbor and others. It is defined as willingness to respect the neighbor and contributes to the peace of the community. New Testament writer distinguished between the ethics of food and those of sex, but the distinction was not between one kind of purity and another. The distinction pointed out the fact that with sex, unlike food, other kinds of ethical principles remained valid. The New Testament announced the end of the ethic of physical purity. Purity is one of the concepts that confused me the most. It is the first part of the book though probably it was hard for me to read and fully understand this part. The purity codes have changed since the Old Testament yet it is confusing. Although sex was not a primary concern in the New Testament writings, most Christian piety regarded virginity as the only truly devour use of sexuality. The standard Christian sexual ethic came to be: Sex is dirty, nasty, and disgusting;...