ABSTRACT
AS A HISTORIAN of a period long ago, I often encounter skepticism about the relevance of my research in the contemporary world. When I began this study, I was struck by how different the responses were to the project. People I met at community meetings, soccer games, or my hair salon were extremely interested, even when I told them the book stops in 1750. I could, of course, attribute this to their “prurient” interests in anything having to do with sex, and see it as proof that the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, and the American radio host, Howard Stern, are right: modern people want to talk about sex more than anything else. But it was not merely the sex part they were interested in, it was also the connection of sex to Christianity, a connection which they saw as both self-evident and extremely relevant.
