BW/016 'The Devout Consummation: On Healing the Wound Between Catholics and Protestants'



Sequel to BW/010 and BW/012. Suggests that in its attitude to sex, Roman Catholicism has a blind spot comparable to the Protestant weakness in the region of mystical prayer. The notion that sex is somehow unholy, which is not found in the teaching of Jesus or Paul, entered the Church through the gnostic and ascetic movements of the second century and afterwards, and became enshrined in Catholic teaching through Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine.

It still causes serious problems today. That there are comparable blind spots on both sides of the Protestant/Catholic divide may explain why the problems of the Reformation have proved so intractable; recognition of which could open the way towards a healing of the wounds sustained by the Christian Church during that era.

The substance of this report is now incorporated in Martin’s book Peacemaking in God’s Church, described in Section III