Chastity

A rare bronze of dancing Ardhanari(svara), the Androgyne or Hermaphrodite, is in the Colombo museum. It was originally excavated in Anurådhapura, Sri Lanka, in 1982. Professor S. PADMANABHAN of the Peredenia University, who visited my alma mater (The Tamil University of Thanjavur) a few months ago, gave us a copy of the photo (Fig. 1) which is of great importance for research pertaining to Ardhanari. The most significant feature of the image is that it accommodates the feminine part in its right side. Though the figure under study has been published and discussed around nine times, the identification does not seem to be very apt. Even though ADICEAM (1968) wrote an exhaustive account of Ardhanarisvara, the credit of bringing to scholarly attention the concept of Ardhanari with the breast on the right side as against Ardhanari with the breast on the left side goes to Professor Raju KALIDOS (1992). The report of KALIDOS (1993) was followed by brief notes of his colleagues, GOPALAKRISHNAN (1994-95) and KANDASAMY (1994).
This article is based on the hypothesis accounted by KALIDOS (1993: 68), “when the breast happens to be on the left the emphasis lies on the Male principle and on the Female principle when the breast appears on the right”. The pratimalaksana of the Silpasastras brings Ardhanarisvara under Sivatattvanidhi, thus putting stress on Siva and not on Devï. The icon under study is depicted with the breast on the right and so here the androgyne deity is accounted under ‘she’ and not ‘he’.

If a responsible way to live one’s sexuality is discussed within society—particularly ex negativo, as it is the case since the last wave of the abuse scandal occurred within the Catholic Church, theological and philosophical approaches are required that can contribute toward a renewal of how we deal with sexuality as Christians. An order of sexuality that complies with sensible—and, hence, humane criteria— is therefore presented in the following article. The virtue of chastity, as described here, refers to and has an  impact on both body and soul. The virtue mentioned is explained as a good habit that has become a set disposition that calls for the successful integration of sexuality into the good life and to which grace contributes in a significant way.

The Roman du Comte de Poitiers is chiefly known for the elaboration of the wager motif in the first half of the romance, where a valiant noblewoman is publicly accused of infidelity and later exonerated. The second part of the romance has been less frequently studied. It contains a highly unusual depiction of a group of women who are commanded to disrobe so that their virginity may be ascertained. It is generally agreed that the two parts of the story are unrelated. In this article I argue that the two articulations of female honor and humiliation are closely associated and that they serve as an example of a more pervasive rhetoric of "visible honor" found in other romances of the French 12th and 13th centuries.

La chasteté, comprise comme l’abstinence sexuelle volontaire pour des raisons religieuses, a toujours suscité beaucoup de suspicion. Les récents scandales qui frappent l’Église semblent donner raison à ceux qui y voient un mirage ou une imposture. Mais est-ce si vrai ? Ne serait-ce pas plutôt qu’il faut comprendre cette même chasteté dans un élan de vie consacré où la sexualité n’est pas amputée, refoulée, mais transcendée. Mais alors comment ? À quel prix ? Et par quels moyens ? L’enjeu spirituel de la chasteté est-il de l’ordre de la conformité à un modèle ou de l’humilité ? Une réflexion concrète où la frustration s’efface devant la transfiguration. Il ne s’agit pas de tuer le désir, mais de le vivre autrement.

This paper presents a Platonist and Indo-hellenistic ascetic and renunciant view of sexual desire and sexuality and the necessity of celibacy on the spiritual path and concludes that for the many who won't be celibate contemplative ascetics/philosophers lawful and legitimate sexual activity is confined solely to heterosexual intercourse in the context of an indissoluble monogamous marriage.  Thus, it advocates the traditional sexual morality totally in opposition to the modern, naturalist, post-sexual revolution world.  This traditional sexual morality is exactly what the divine Plato advocates for the many in the Laws.

This essay argues that female chastity figures centrally in Bartholomew Fair’s exploration of early capitalist subjectivity. In the play, Jonson suggests that the market compromises masculinity and posits Grace Wellborn’s self-conscious commoditization of her own sexual agency as a strategy for navigating commercial markets. Through Grace, Jonson revises dominant models of subject formation to account for the emergence of a bourgeois self in relation to early modern commercial forces that are often understood as compromising personal autonomy. Jonson then applies this model of commoditized subjectivity to the commercial playwright, linking his own agency as an author to his ability to negotiate the market.

[Mei Oujin 梅欧金]. “Tianzhu shiyi zai Fujian: zai liang ge shijie, liang zhong shijian zhi jian. 天主实义在福建：在两个世界、两种时间之间.” In Lynn Struve (Si Tulin 司徒林), Zhao Shiyu 赵士瑜, and Du Zhengzhen 杜正贞 eds. Shijie shijian yu Dong Ya shijian zhong de Ming Qing bianqian: cong Ming dao Qing shijian de zhongsu 世界时间与东亚时间中的明清变迁-从明到清时间的重塑. Beijing: Sanlian Shudian, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 225-303. [Chinese translation of “Between Two Worlds and Two Times: Teachings of the Lord of Heaven in Fujian.” In Lynn Struve ed., Time, Temporality, and Change of Empires: East Asia from Ming to Qing. Association for Asian Studies-sponsored series Asian Interactions and Comparisons, University of Hawai’i Press, 2005].

本文比較三篇近代中國文言小說的敘事結構，並分析其中隱含的父權意識形態以及國族隱喻中的「感時憂國」主題。在蒲松齡的〈聶小倩〉，可以發現一種關於生死陰陽的二元對立，女性角色總是連結於失序與黑暗，象徵著對於儒家宗法社會的違犯；在蘇曼殊的〈焚劍記〉，女性能否堅守貞節，則與國家民族之生死存亡息息相關；而徐枕亞的《玉梨魂》，描寫了一位聰慧博學的美麗寡婦，但她「自願」放棄追求愛情的可能，全心撮合她的戀人與其他女子結合，從而延緩了「自由戀愛」這一現代理想。從文學史的角度來看，隨著時間過去，近代文言小說中的女性形象，逐漸成熟飽滿，然而，過去那指向性別差異的結構性對立關係，仍在近代小說敘事中被延續下來。一方面，女性總是被置於「邪淫/失貞/保守」的次級道德位置，阻礙社會秩序的圓滿；另一方面，貞節是不變的美德，女子是否堅守貞操這一問題，同時也指向對於中國傳統的忠誠。

Ancient readers were highly attuned to etymologically and allusively significant character names, which helped shape their experience and understanding of narratives in a variety of ways. Authors frequently exploited that fact in their compositions. This paper capitalizes on that state of affairs by utilizing a literarily attuned onomastic analysis to explore two themes in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca. Specifically, I argue that Xenophon deploys several character names in interpretively important and sometimes sophisticated ways to serve the construction of themes relating to erotic andreia and lasting beauty. Regarding erotic andreia, this study largely supplements and corroborates conclusions that have been emerging in recent scholarship and offers a few fresh proposals for consideration. Xenophon’s interest in lasting beauty has not received much attention in contemporary scholarship outside of David Konstan’s Sexual Symmetry. The results of this study suggest that the theme deserves further examination. I offer a brief sketch, informed by onomastic analysis, of where the theme occurs and why it matters in the story Xenophon is telling.

Love, sexuality, marriage and chastity --

I have written this document thinking in my four daughters. The oldest of them is 13 years old and has just started to read it. I am planning to add this document to the small book on Christianity, evolution and related topic, what I am writing – for more details see https://www.researchgate.net/project/Christianity-and-Evolution

This document wants to give some hints concerning love, sexuality, marriage and chastity. Many people think, that Christian sex morals are outworn and repressive. Therefore I start with some biological facts and anthropological observations. From these I deduce some principles and suggestions. Finally I conclude that these principles and suggestions have much in common with Christian sex morals. Important additions from Christianity are the appreciation of the celibacy in close community with God, the remission of sins and the indissolubility of marriage. 

This document is especially – but not only – directed to young adults. It tries to give some helpful advice. It is written in German language. Up to now I did not make English summaries of the parts of the document, because to be added to the small book on Christianity etc., the text has to be rearranged probably.

A philosophical introduction to the concept of chastity seen in the phenomenological light of its interaction with the cultural frame of a technological society, with reference to Heidegger, the search for authenticity with reference to Taylor, the anthropology of violence with reference to Rene Girard, the realisation of the phenomenological realm of beauty with reference to Gadamer, and the phenomenological analysis of the phenomenon of chastity itself with reference to Wojtyla.

Abstract: This paper examines two sexual myths, the droit du seigneur and the chastity belt. Through medieval Hispanic documentation, values and customs of those societies, it is denied their existence but shows that already existed in the Middle Ages as myths. The droit de seigneur was part of political rumours used against the feudal lords. The chastity belt was also used as a political weapon but it was more like satirical element against jealous husbands. This allows us to rehabilitate the public image of the Middle Ages, without forget their shadows, to no longer used as justification that we live in the best of all possible worlds, without regard to the most recent past or our inheritance.
Resumen: El objetivo de este trabajo es arrojar luz sobre dos mitos sexuales, el derecho de pernada y el cinturón de castidad. A través de documentación hispana medieval, de los valores y costumbres de aquellas sociedades, no sólo niega su existencia, sino que demuestra que como mitos ya existían en la Edad Media. El derecho de pernada formaba parte de los rumores políticos que se levantaban contra los señores feudales, al igual que llegó a ocurrir con el cinturón de castidad, aunque más que usarse para motivos políticos era un elemento satírico contra maridos celosos. Esta labor nos permite rehabilitar la imagen pública de la Edad Media, pero sin olvidar sus sombras, para que no se use como justificación de que vivimos en el mejor de los mundos posibles, sin atender al pasado más reciente o a nuestras herencias.

Who cares about chastity? This is the question that motivates The Chastity Plot. Is chastity necessary? What did it mean and to whom? Should we still care about the reasons chastity has played a role in the history of moral thinking and in the complicated career of eros in literature and in life? This book argues that we should. I write at a time when sexual harassment has finally managed to attract the attention of the wider public. Respect and delicacy are not high priorities in public life, and sexual restraint seems the least of our worries. A number of histories are in competition, each with its own sense of urgency. For the left, other virtues have mattered more than chastity. To achieve freedom and justice, it is hard to proceed without generosity, courage, honour, and truthfulness; sexual purity, on the other hand, has no clear role to play. Even the religious right in the US and other western nations has turned its attention away from worries about female modesty and sexual abstinence, since a number of its leaders would, on most traditional measures, be considered sexual sinners,

The Vārṣṇeyādhyātma, which is comprised of chapters 203–210 of the 12th Book of the Mahābhārata, is an early exposition of the practice of Yoga centered on the manas (mind) and the bodily channel called manovahā (mind- conveying). The importance of the Vārṣṇeyādhyātma’s doctrine for the history of Yoga has not been appropriately acknowledged in previous research and its sys- tematic description of the practice of Yoga has never been studied in its entirety. A careful reading of the text suggests that the Vārṣṇeyādhyātma touches upon the physiological as well as psychological aspects of a human being in the context of the practice of Yoga. This paper attempts to reconstruct the Vārṣṇeyādhyātma’s understanding of the manas and the manovahā channel on the basis of a critical reading of Mahābhārata 12.207.16–29.

This thesis analyses images of male saints defending their chastity against transgressive women. The studied images were produced in post-Tridentine Italy – a period when Catholic dogma, through Church reform, emphasised the superiority of the virginal state and the danger of carnal desire. The rule of mandatory celibacy for the clergy was one of the questions discussed during the Council of Trent, the chief movement of the Catholic Reformation (1545-1563). Critical voices regarding the Catholic Church’s lack of control and strictness towards the sexual misconducts repeatedly performed by their clergy were raised both within the Church and by their Protestant opponents. When the Catholics, unlike the Protestants, reaffirmed the rule of compulsory clerical celibacy, the essential importance of sexual abstinence was accentuated by confirming its connection to the true Christian doctrine.

The thesis aims to examine, firstly, how the temptation episodes are communicated visually for them to function as a promotion for the reformed Catholic Church, and secondly, how the images reflect the current attitude towards gender and sexuality. The study's visual source material consists of paintings, drawings and engravings of temptation scenes from the lives of St. Anthony the Great, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Jerome, St. Philip Neri, St. Thomas of Aquinas and St. Eligius. The images are seen as cultural and religious expressions of their time and are studied in close connection with their textual sources, e.g. the hagiographies of the saints, and are approached through an iconographic reading. For critical perspectives and material information, the examination is further conducted with the support of fields outside art history; theology, gender studies and history.

The result shows that images of carnal temptation were not only increasingly produced during the sixteenth century, but also addressed to expanding audiences of laymen and not just monks and priests. I argue that the reaffirmation of the importance of chastity played an essential role in the introduction and elaboration of new temptation imagery. The images of tempted, yet withstanding, male saints served to promote the heightened sexual morality of the post-Tridentine Church. By presenting the female sex as an immediate danger to the patriarchal order, the motifs uncover a long established misogyny. The images show a Catholic male ideal where masculinity was defined by exemplarily mastered flesh. The observation that the pictured events solely present male saints underlines that such grace is exclusively masculine. The Catholic Church's attitude towards sexuality as well as its patriarchal power structure, give the artworks a clear symbolic meaning: when a man manages to overcome the desires of the flesh, he transforms his passion into a spiritual desire that is satisfied through the love of God.

The first section of this paper discusses  the Greek notions of parthenos (virgin), and parthenia (virginity). More precisely, I will revisit the arguments made in Le Corps virginal (1986: Paris: Vrin), a book translated into English, as Greek Virginity (1990: HUP).
In Greek culture, virginity is an experience of embodiment, a condition of closure and intactness, the inexperience of "the works of Aphrodite". It is NOT a mere social status, namely non-marriage. I strongly refute this reductionist interpretation, based on a simplistic notion of what is "social", and on a superficial reading of the primary sources.
But although virginity is an experience of embodiment, it does not depend upon one  single  body part. The ancient Greeks did not recognize the existence of a membrane located in a woman's vagina -- what we call the "hymen". They did not obsess on defloration and bloodshed.
The second section of the paper will advance a new hypothesis on the medical knowledge that lay in the background of the representations of virginity.
The two sections are connected as follows: while re-examining the terminology, I will argue that ancient medical writers did not include the "hymen”, in the anatomy of a healthy young woman. Soranos of Ephesus (II century CE) was the first physician to mention a membrane obstructing the vagina, but he claimed that this was just a false belief. There could be imperforation, he argued, but this could only be an anomaly.
There was no normal occlusion.
The ancient Greeks, therefore, failed to identify what modern forensic medicine calls “the physical signs of virginity”. They relied, however, on a different kind of sign of vaginal intercourse: pregnancy. As long as they could trust the conception of a child as the predictable effect of heterosexual coition, pregnancy revealed the loss of virginity. Contraception was to disturb that trust. Soranos, the first physician who discusses the anatomy of an un-penetrated woman, is also the first to provide an extensive collection of contraceptive remedies – not just abortifacients. The transition from a representation of virginity as sexual inexperience (but without the anatomical support of the "hymen") to the need to pin down sexual integrity via a membranous structure, is correlated to the increasing aware- ness that women might tamper with their bodies, and that heterosexual coition, therefore, might go unobserved.

This paper was presented at Leeds IMC 2016.

In 1400, the deposed Richard II died at Pontefract Castle.  Rumours swirled that he had died fighting his assassins or that he was secretly alive and hiding in Scotland.  However, the official Lancastrian line, conveyed by Thomas Walsingham in his chronicles, was that Richard had starved to death unintentionally, faulting no one for this sad event.  Later chroniclers would not follow this line; someone -- be it Richard II or Henry IV -- had to be responsible.  This paper explores the literary evolution of Richard II's death narrative and examines the religious and social context of these events.  Ironically, one of Thomas Walsingham's major criticisms of Henry IV's funeral for Richard was the lack of a meal for guests, a prescribed part of royal funerals. A king suffered a pauper’s death, though not quite a pauper’s funeral.

The purpose of this essay was to identify the advantages of virginity and chastity for health as well as the negative effects of lack thereof. These harms, which can extend to familial and larger social consequences, have been examined from a biological and psychological perspective. The topic is supported by gynecological, biological, and psychological studies. If there isn't any specific research to support a certain inference, then it has been addressed using widely accepted scientific concepts. The essay covered the advantages of virginity and chastity, including how they can deepen relationships via fidelity and committed bonds, improve first sex experiences through novelty, lubricate and tighten the vagina, and protect against illnesses. However, relationships have suffered as a result of several partners or polyamorous relationships, vaginal laxity, and STDs. The practice of prostitution was also discussed, along with the social, psychological, and health costs associated with it. The study concluded that laws should be adopted to prohibit and punish extramarital sex rather than prioritizing the proposal of temporary band-aids to these issues, such as the promotion of condoms, STD treatments, etc., in order to protect individual morality, familial relationships, society from exploiting women, and health laws.

Sigmund Freud viewed human nature as inherently sexual. While he recognized the rational and moral aspects (the ego and superego) of personality as inhibiting man’s sexual urges (the id), Freud argued that the sexual instinct is fundamentally the basis for the functioning of man. This paper challenges Freud’s claim using Karol Wojtyla’s phenomenological approach to person. It contends that while the sexual urge is present in man, being a creature of reason, man actually has the ability to transcend his sexual instincts and determine the ultimate goal of the sexual urge within him. Through his inner self, he is able to perceive the importance of chastity and embody it as a value.

In History of Sexuality Volume 1, Foucault claims that despite commonly held beliefs that Victorians restricted public references to sex, they and subsequent generations could not stop talking, writing, and researching topics that dealt with intercourse. If Foucault's hypothesis is true, and this paper assumes it to be so, a question to research is how different groups within Western culture understood, constructed, and dealt with sexuality from the Victorian era into the twentieth century. One of the groups that interest this article is the Catholic Church. Catholicism has traditionally defined itself as a religion that encourages sexual abstinence as a means of achieving salvation, but the notion of restraint was particularly applied to women until the nineteenth century. From the second half of the nineteenth century through to the mid-twentieth century, a shift occurred emphasizing both male and female agency to police their bodies. It was during this time that the figure of the "martyr for chastity" emerged, a symbol for the Church to communicate to the laity a sure way of attaining salvation through the exercise of the will and the control of the body.

Some would say that the expression 'true love waits' is already passé. It is no longer practice by Filipino teens as shown by the many cases of unwanted pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. These unfortunate consequences simply validate that there is indeed a great decline in the sexual morality of our youth. On the contrary, this paper presents the other side of the coin. It highlights the personal stories of selected Filipino teens who still embody the virtue of chastity. It proves that this expression about love still makes a lot of sense in spite of their sexually permissive culture. This study will draw and weave from their narratives the various root causes of their non-engagement to premarital sex which highlight the virtue of "kalinisang puri" or "may dangal". Findings reveal that belonging to an intact family, high level of intimacy with respect to one's partner, positive influence of peers/friends, and regular observance of/attendance to religious rituals were the contributory factors which enable them to make a responsible decision about their sexuality. Additional findings reveal that these root causes are actually the result of the sociocultural influences that shape their everyday life. The outcomes and discussion of the study can help researchers to formulate the content of a sexual ethic that is relevant and effective in their moral formation.

This paper attempts to explicate the Challenges Facing the Christian family in order to communicating the vision of God to Youths in Africa. The aims include to redefine marriage and Christian family; to communicate the vision of God to Youths in Africa. Using a historical, theological and analytic methods, findings show from available statistics that the rate of divorce is high among the female than the male; that lack of personality understanding before making marriage choices; that an affront by secular humanism undermines the natural establishment of marriage and family. One of the suggested practical ways to address the situation is that personality development assessment be taken seriously; religious education of the person in the vision of God creator of marriage and family for youths is necessary and urgent. All this is an attempt to redefine marriage and Christian family life as good news for the happiness of the individual and the sanity of our society.

"The word paternoster has been applied in a variety of senses. In the Middle Ages paternoster became a synonym for lovemaking. An early instance of this usage appears in the anonymous medieval Latin Prisciano regula. Later it occurs in Rutebeuf's Old French De frere Denise and the Middle English Secunda Pastorum. Evidence that the medieval usage perhaps continued into the modern period is found in Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Hugo's Notre-Dame.

The erotic paternoster may have originated in a playful juxtaposition of a holy prayer and an unholy deed, in an awareness that people saying the paternoster often had their minds on their lovers, or in the proximity of the paternoster to the kiss of peace in the liturgy."

The Teutonic Knights represent a very special case of members of a religious order, living in a “semi-closed” space. The paper proposes some considerations on the relationship between the normative acts and the daily reality of the Knights, willing to understand, to what extent a rule or statutes may preserve the integrity a religious community heavily influenced by the secular world. The first part presents the statutes of the Teutonic Order, consisting in rule, “laws”, customs and some additional standards. Subsequently, the question is to perceive how the Teutonic law was adapted to the necessities of everyday life of the Knights, examining first of all the chapter Des freres qui vont en chemin of their rule. The central part of the communication studies the transgressions and punishments provided by the Teutonic statutes, inspired by the constitutions of the Dominican Order. Finally, the last section looks at the application of these standards, starting from the example of the possessions of the Teutonic Order in the Italian peninsula. The statutes of the Teutonic Knights are a very sophisticated example of medieval statutory legislation, that seeks to adapt itself to the multiplicity of actions of the Knights and unites the concept of obedience and discipline with the principles of collegiality and solidarity. However, as indicated by the comparative sources, this was not enough to face the changes and difficulties of the Order and its internal divisions.

W artykule omówiono czystość jako wartość rozpatrywaną w ujęciu psychospołecznym i kulturowym. Przypomniano podstawowe definicje wartości, główne poglądy na ten temat, a także ich znaczenie dla nauk, takich jak filozofia, psychologia, socjologia oraz pedagogika. Przedstawiono też główne aspekty judeochrześcijańskiego postrzegania czystości, które dotyczą różnych stanów czystości: młodzieńczo-dziewiczej, narzeczeńskiej i małżeńskiej, a także celibatu (życie kapłańskie i zakonne). Przytoczono poglądy biblijne
wyrażone w tekstach Starego i Nowego Testamentu. Zwrócono uwagę na zagrożenia dla czystości w dzisiejszym społeczeństwie, a także na negatywne konsekwencje odrzucenia wartości czystości – duchowe, psychiczne, zdrowotne itp. Wyszczególniono też szereg pozytywnych skutków – zarówno indywidualnych, jak i społecznych zachowania cnoty
czystości. Po uwzględnieniu danych statystycznych dostępnych w literaturze przedmiotu wyciągnięto wniosek o konieczności powrotu do traktowania czystości jako wartości, propagowania jej w mediach oraz kształtowania odpowiednich postaw w procesie wychowawczym.

Il saggio propone un percorso attorno alla qualità morale detta ḥayāʾ, promossa dal discorso islamico contemporaneo soprattutto in relazione all'abbigliamento femminile. Grazie all'indagine sulla letteratura islamica fondativa (Corano, Sunna del Profeta) e su altra letteratura di impianto tradizionale e argomento morale (ad es. il Kitāb al-zuhd di Abū Dāwūd o il Makārim al-akhlāq di Ibn Abī al-Dunyā), e con l'aiuto della lessicografia classica, il ḥayāʾ, normalmente tradotto con modestia, si offre come un costituente imprescindibile nella vita di tutti i credenti, irriducibile all'universo femminile e anche all'apparenza esteriore. Si tratta infatti di una pudicizia di ampio respiro, fondata principalmente sull'astensione della vista e non solo dalla vista, e anche sulla reticenza di parola, corrispondente a un rispetto di sé e del prossimo che si presta alla comprensione e di più alla condivisione di chi appartiene a una diversa tradizione culturale. Abstract This paper surveys the moral quality known as ḥayāʾ, prompted by contemporary Islamic debate in relation particularly to women's dress. On the basis of an interrogation of the foundational Islamic literature (the Koran, the Prophet's Sunna) and other tradition based or morally oriented writings (e.g. Abū Dāwūd's Kitāb al-zuhd or Ibn Abī al-Dunyā's Makārim al-akhlāq), and with the help of classical lexicography, ḥayāʾ, usually translated as 'modesty' , emerges as an essential element in the life of every believer, not confined to the world of women, nor to external appearances. It is rather a question of a wide-ranging decency, rooted principally in an abstention from looking, as much as from displaying, and equally in verbal reticence, and goes hand-in-hand with a respect for oneself and for others, such as may be readily understood, even shared, by those belonging to different cultural traditions.

In order to determine the place of flesh in examples of medieval accounts in the south of France, three collections have been selected. These are the Latin manuscript 3555 in the Bibliothèque nationale of France, the collection called that of Brother Sachet, and the Scala coeli of Jean Gobi the Younger. Firstly, by increasing its size, this body of work has been analysed thanks to the methods of statistical analysis, to determine the meaning of caro in pastoral literature. Besides the food aspect, caro for the preachers is caught between the strongly contrasting concupiscentia and mortificatio. This binary morality is hardly surprising. Caro simply refers back to the great fundamental contrast within the system of medieval representation between caro and spiritus. It is subsequently studied where the accounts we have retained as exempla intended to control sexuality, and how the notion of "flesh" (caro and its derivatives), in the sense of sexual control, is offered. The matter is, as a general rule, present throughout the work. A thematic perception of this type of extract found throughout ms BnF lat. 3555 is proposed: punishment of lustful people, damnation of the soul, condemnation of adultery, opposition to lust. In Jean Gobi, mulier, the woman of quality is opposed to femina, the bad and sinful woman. There remain three concluding remarks. The extracts concerning the "flesh" and sexu¬ality constitute a significant proportion of the accounts, i.e. 10% for the first, 16% for Sachet, and 6% for the Scala coeli. Although they draw on common foundations of anecdotes condemning lust (or promoting chastity), the southern French authors like to propose models rooted in southern France, even if sexual control is not the only matter to benefit from this particular treatment. Finally, the clergy are not often directly condemned. The audience envisaged seems to be clearly that of lay people through the exempla, sometimes focussing on the clergy. The Gregorian Reform does not appear, at the end of the XIIIth century and the beginning of the myth century, to have had much impact.

This article explores how Anthony Munday’s Palmerin d’Oliva (1588), Part II, portrays the threat of Muslims in the Near East. Munday’s source is the French L’Histoire de Palmerin d’Olive (1546), which Jean Maugin had translated from the anonymous Spanish chivalric romance Palmerín de Olivia (1511). I focus on the way that the description of the Muslim menace changes in the course of translation. I argue that both the French and English translators manipulate medieval and early modern sexual stereotypes used to describe Muslim culture in order to heighten the sense of Islamic aggression and the holiness of Christianity as a counter to its threat. Munday’s translation, in particular, represents the ambivalent views that his contemporary England held about Islam and the Near East, and also highlights the sanctity of Christian chastity and marriage, which are issues that he also develops in Part I of the Palmerin d’Oliva.

[Mei Oujin 梅欧金]. “Mingmo Qingchu Fujian xiaozhong Mingchao de Tianzhujiaotu, Xibanya huishi yu shouzhen shengnü 明末清初福建效忠明朝的天主教徒，西班牙会士与守贞 圣女.” Gongjiao wenyi 公教文译 3 (2012): 55–89. [Chinese translation of “Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian during the Ming-Qing Transition.” Monumenta Serica. Journal of Oriental Studies, 51 (2003), pp. 335-365].

Abridged reprint: “Child Bodies, Blessed Bodies: The Contest between Christian Virginity and Confucian Chastity,” in Lutz, Jessie ed., Pioneer Chinese Christian Women. Gender, Christianity, and Social Mobility, Lehigh University Press, 2010, pp. 108-140.

Queste riflessioni sulla castità, scritte al maschile, sono rivolte sia a presbiteri e religiosi, sia a seminaristi e a novizi.

Esse offrono un contributo circa un argomento vasto, contrassegnato dalla singolarità delle situazioni, delle personalità, delle culture, con l’intento di offrire, in modo presentabile, la ricchezza di senso di questa forma di impegno e di tentare di dare un nome alle difficoltà che incontrano quanti si sono incamminati sulla via della castità.

Vivere la castità, nella forma specifica che essa prende nella vita religiosa o nel ministero ordinato, significa accogliere la vita che Dio ci dona, la vita in abbondanza..

This paper sets out to communicate Chastity Education to Children and Young People as a Pro-life Curriculum no Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. We live in an age where things traditional have become tagged as obsolete and irrelevant. Chastity is one of such that is suffering the impact of social changes of our times with its corollary, virginity, being denigrated as unwanted and at worst, irrelevant. However, there are some things that will never change but will only get better and stronger. In the meantime, the world did not arrive at the stage it is today by mere speed of light or tap of globalisation. This paper focuses its message on the aspect of chastity education for children and young people in Catholic and secular schools today.

Title: Saint Francis and the Iconography of Chastity
During the second half of the 16th century, images of a naked Saint Francis of Assisi, lying on a bed of burning coal accompanied by a female prostitute, started to appear in Franciscan art – first in illustrated manuscripts and then in oil paintings and murals. The motif is known as "La castitá essemplaria di san Francesco" (St Francis’s Exemplary Chastity) or "Le tentazioni di san Francesco" (The Temptations of St Francis) and forms part of the new Franciscan iconography that developed as a result of the Catholic reformation (1545–1563). Many of the episodes illustrated by Giotto and the artists of the 14th and 15th centuries were replaced by others that focused on Francis’s poverty, humility and exemplary chastity. In this article, the iconography of St Francis’s Exemplary Chastity in Italian art is studied from its origin in late 16th-century engravings through its developments in oil painting and murals until the early 18th century. The origin of the story is found in I Fioretti di San Francesco (The Little Flowers of St Francis). The Saint is pictured as a potent and muscular "Miles Christi" offering an example of his spotlessly chaste character through resisting a young prostitute, but who also performs a miracle and saves her soul. This image, it is argued, reflects the position of the reformed Catholic Church, where the individual’s own responsibility for salvation was clearly emphasized.

Keywords Saint Francis Exemplary Chastity, Temptation of Saint Francis, I fioretti di S. Francesco, Franciscan iconography, Catholic Reformation, Italian art

Incest appears throughout Book III of The Faerie Queene, the very book wherein Spenser purports to portray the virtue of Chastity. The present essay investigates this apparently illogical interpenetration of incest and chastity, ultimately arguing that the imperialist logic underpinning the epic is tied to an intense fear of miscegenation that, in turn, privileges endogamous relations as a way of warding off foreign invasion and contamination. For Spenser, incest comes to signify an admirable commitment to one’s own kind that constitutes—in a colonial context—the highest form of chastity and the greatest guarantor of national and individual purity.

The paper addresses the use of the words цнотливий, цнотливість and цнота in the Ukrainian political media discourse, with a particular focus on the evolution of the "chastity words" semantics in the Ukrainian language, based on social and political publications of the internet portals "Dzerkalo tyzhnja", "Ukrajinskyj Tyzhden", "Ukrajinska Pravda". The canon of Christian virtues, established in the Middle Ages, is no longer accepted unquestioningly by modern society, and thus it is not surprising to see an ambivalent attitude to certain religious ascetic virtues, e.g. chastity, humility, piety etc. It is revealed that evaluative semantics of the "chastity words" in the Ukrainian political media discourse varies for different reference groups such as "women", "men", "girls", "boys", "state", "politicians", "language", "literature", "art" and "cinema". When denoting female virtue, the "chastity words" have positive and neutral connotations. It is shown that chastity as a virtue of men and women is synonymous in the Ukrainian media discourse to modesty, decency, morality, honor, dignity and virtue. “Chaste" as a characteristic of an intimate contact indicates its tenderness and decency, which is positively assessed by the participants of communication in Ukrainian political media discourse. The use of the "chastity words" as an attribute of government and public institutions is conditioned by a cognitive metaphor, where the source domain is a woman or an intimate relationship. The language evaluation of the "chastity words" ranges from positive to extremely negative in the political media texts: in the latter case they acquire negative evaluative meanings "stagnation", "limitation", "ideological engagement," "conservatism," "lack of reform." Sometimes the "chastity words" acquire negative connotations when attributed to art, literature and cinema, actualizing the semes "lack of progress", "backwardness". In a literal sense, chastity as absence of excessive eroticism and moral debauchery in art and films is evaluated positively in the Ukrainian social and political media discourse.