ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the sexual and family ethics of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It also deals with the principal theses or major assertions of the Judeo-Christian ethic, not all of which are unique to that ethic. Sexual transgressions are conceived as sins in Judaism also, in other words, as affronts to God. But the difference between the Jewish and Christian traditions is that the Christian tradition itself comes very close to regarding sexual pleasure as something that is intrinsically evil, whereas the Jewish certainly does not. The sexual teaching of Jesus, as it is portrayed in the Gospels, introduced some new elements into the Jewish environment, elements that came to be rejected by the Jews. The chapter looks at the contributions of St. Paul. His teaching on sex is governed by a number of factors, one of which is his seeming personal aversion to sex, sexual anorexia, so to speak.
