tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875703880331088131.post2166402024762140993..comments2023-08-16T08:44:38.912-04:00Comments on Blog of the Dormition: 3) The Morality of Birth Control - A patristic understandingJohn R.P. Russellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02755313230578655992noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875703880331088131.post-59739451354188854352012-07-06T18:12:57.690-04:002012-07-06T18:12:57.690-04:00I'm not so sure flattering Augustine is all th...I'm not so sure flattering Augustine is all that truthful. Augustine for example in that essay " The Good of Marriage" sect 6...starts a negative error which was to haunt laity up til the mid 19th century in that he saw asking for the debt as venial sin if procreation was not willed:<br />" but to pay the due of marriage is no crime, but to demand it beyond the necessity of begetting is a venial fault."<br /> Aquinas 700 years later totally accepts this and passes it on to plague more zealous laity:<br /> Aquinas: Summa T., Supplement...question 49 art 5 “I answer that”: <br /> “Consequently there are only two ways in which married persons can come together without any sin at <br />all, namely in order to have offspring, and in order to <br />pay the debt, otherwise it is always at least a venial <br />sin."<br /> When the Vatican explicitly accepted the use of the infertile times in the mid 19th century, this older rigorist error was to cause criticism of the natural rythym use by largely clergy ( see John Noonan Jr.'s <i>Contraception</i>).bill bannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09737277581167437670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875703880331088131.post-9478981627932341402012-07-03T20:23:37.987-04:002012-07-03T20:23:37.987-04:00It has been brought to my attention that this post...It has been brought to my attention that this post pays St. Augustine short shrift by ignoring his work on marriage and sexuality, "De Bono Conjugali." I hope to revise this in the future to rectify this.John R.P. Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02755313230578655992noreply@blogger.com