The Triumph of the Erotic (Trueman)

Parents at the posh Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School are outraged they were never told of a fourth "R" being added to the curriculum: raunch.

In addition to the usual reading, ‘writing and ‘arithmetic, the school this month launched lessons on porn — without informing families or allowing them to opt out, parents fumed.

When juniors at the $47,000-a-year Manhattan school showed up for a health and sexuality workshop, most thought it was "just going to be about condoms or birth control," a student told The Post.

Instead, it was something called "Pornography Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn," taught by Justine Ang Fonte, who’s the director of Health & Wellness at another elite prep school, Dalton.

The often-explicit slide presentation and lecture by Fonte to the 120 boys and girls included lessons on how porn takes care of "three big male vulnerabilities"; statistics on the "orgasm gap" showing straight women have far fewer orgasms with their partners than gay men or women; and photos of partially-nude women, some in bondage, to analyze "what is porn and what is art." [https://www.foxnews.com/us/columbia-prep-students-and-parents-reel-after-class-on-porn-literacy. Accessed May 23, 2021]

Thesis:

Christians are equipped to battle the mainstream sin of pornography in the midst of an erotic culture.

In order to understand how mainstream culture became erotic, we will look at two elements identified by Trueman. After these two elements, we will see how the scriptures equips us to battle this issue.

Two elements identified by Trueman that have given way to the rise of the erotic (the glorification of sexual desire or excitement) within our culture:

(1) Surrealism

“…the name given to a school of artistic expression that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century…in which the nature of the self and of identity was central.” [Trueman, Carl. Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, p. 274]

One of the leading figures was poet Andre Breton who was fascinated with the work of Sigmund Freud. In particular, he was amazed with the importance of dreams related to human existence.

“You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be”

Trueman summarizes Breton, “…the great attraction of dreams is that the dreamer is able to be whoever or whatever she wants to be in whatever kind of world she chooses to envisage.” [Trueman, p. 275].

Part of the philosophy was that what an individual envisaged in dreams, unhindered by the material world, was a manifestation of the true self. The art itself is thus dramatic and confusing. The message that surrealist art is attempting to communicate is that “the unconscious is the guide to the truth.” [ibid] This was key to knowing the true self, and in-so-much as the truth is in the unconsciousness it was hidden and needed to be found.

“Dreams are therefore to be regarded as a potential source for thought and for solving the most basic problems of life.” [ibid, 276]

One final component too is that, much like Sigmund Freud, the surrealist regarded sex as “providing the basic dynamic for the unconscious.” [ibid].

Once the true self is found, it was to be given expression in the arts (i.e. movies, paintings, poetry…etc). This expression was used for the purposes of reconstructing “human personhood and society” [ibid, 277], and this was central to the surrealist political project.

Why was this a political project? In part because sex has power. Sex sells. “The political power of sex” is nothing new; but it was by the influence and work of Marquis de Sade when there is an explicit link between “the sexual and political ambitions of the surrealists...” [ibid]. See his Speech to the Congress of Writers (1935).

“The purpose of surrealism was profoundly and aggressively political: to overthrow Christianity (and its corollaries—families and moral codes governing sexual behavior)....it was to do this via an emphasis in it various works of art on human desires and their attainment through self-actualization of the individual.” [ibid, 278].

Summarily: Surrealism, in a sexual context, is a movement that sought to give expression to the true, sexualized individual; but it needed to war against anything that might oppress its’ expression (i.e. family, Christianity…etc).

Surrealism also assumed or, at very least attempted to redefine people as fundamentally sexual creatures.

Surrealism thus leads to a certain kind of art, giving expression to the unconscious, yet true, individual. It was sexualized art which should not be repressed.

“It did not simply make sexual images more widely available under the cover of intellectual respectability; it actually served to help the process by which society”… judged pornography as something good and healthy. [ibid., 280]

(2) Cultural Pornification

While surrealism is the philosophical underpinnings of the erotic, porinification is the practical arm of the rise of the erotic — in particular, the pornification of the culture.

For our purposes, I will use the following definition from Tim Chester regarding the word pornography:

‘Porn’, for our purposes, is anything we use for sexual titillation, gratification or escape – whether it was intended for that purpose or not. [Chester, Tim. Closing the Window . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. Location 110]

Hugh Hefner, the creator of Playboy Magazine, devoted his life to the “overthrowing of sexual codes of earlier generations.” [Trueman, 281]. Trueman says:

…there is little doubt that Hefner played a key part in making pornography part of the cultural mainstream and thus in dismantling traditional public attitudes of sex.” [Trueman, p. 281]

Hefner & Mainstream

Hefner’s approach was quite effective. Hefner combined mainstream pop culture icons via interviews with pictures of nude women. Some of the pop culture icons included Bob Dylan, Bill Cosby, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Carter, Betrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sarte, Fidel Castro…etc [ibid, 281-282]. These interview transcriptions were recorded in Playboy Magazine, and became the “reason” why people would purchase the magazine.

It is in the particular story of former POTUS Jimmy Carter where we see a clear connection to the scripture. Trueman says:

“…Jimmy Carter confessed in his Playboy interview to having committed adultery in his heart, it caused a minor sensation. But the admission was not the most important thing…What was significant was that he did so publicly and in a magazine committed to mainstreaming erotic pictures.” [ibid. 282]

If Surrealism and Cultural Pornification are the two elements which have led to the rise of the Erotic, how are Christians to respond? What is the Christian response?

While there are a couple of angles by which we may approach this topic, we will look at the connection through the Jimmy Carter interview.

(1) Pornography is a heart-level sin

(i) Adulteries come out of the evil heart of man - Matthew 15:18-19

(ii) Hatred should be for the sin and not just the regret of the sin - Matthew 5:28

The reality is that often we dislike the shame and the consequences of sin, but we still like the sin itself. [Chester, Tim. Closing the Window . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.]

(2) Surrealism attempts to detach the undetachable

(i) The physical act of sexual activity cannot be detached for the person - I Corinthians 6:16

There is something unique about sexual intimacy. A union is codified in a way that involves the person’s emotion, mind, and body.

(ii) The objectification of women (through pornography) attempts to separate the act from relationship

By objectification of women, I mean that the woman is used as on object for personal gratification. Notice that Paul uses the “one flesh” marital terminology (I Corinthians 6:16). Sexual activity is to be the culmination of and within the confines of the biblical marriage relationship.

(3) Jesus [makes God’s intended design possible] came to fulfill the law, that we might obediently live according to God’s intended design - Matthew 5:17.

The Fall has plunged all of humanity into a devolution of sorts. Rather than healthy marriages characterized by healthy physical relationships, mankind has sinned and made sexual pleasure, without relationship, the goal of life.

Jesus came to willingly live in perfect purity, die for the adulterous, and rise from the dead to give his people power to live as new creatures. Part of this “new creation” living is the power to live according to God’s original intention.

Conclusion:

We admit the sinfulness of our hearts, the evidence of the sinfulness of our culture, and our need for the Redeemer.

We admit that sex or sexual intimacy cannot be detached from the whole person.

We admit that sexual desires are to be fulfilled within the covenant of marriage.

We admit that we are to battle, by God’s grace against lust in the midst of a pornified world.