The Poisoned Embrace: A Brief History of Sexual Pessimism (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780679754145)

The Poisoned Embrace is a provocative investigation into the history of sexual pessimism as it has evolved in Western theology throughout the ages.

Since the days of the Early Fathers, sex and death have formed a theological equation known as sexual pessimism. This aversion to the carnal, and its consequent elevation of the virginal and the chaste, springs not from Christianity, but from Gnosticism.

Osborne examines the art, mythologies, and traditions of Christendom, and distinguishes thematic archetypes: the Virgin, the Witch, the Leper, the Noble Savage, the Jew, the Oriental, the Androgyne, and Don Juan. He traces our now-glorified ideal of sexual passion back to the Troubadours and Northern Mystics, and explores how the Passion of the Cross relates the ideas of sublime passion and therapeutic energy.

Author: Lawrence Osborne
ISBN-10: 0679754148
ISBN-13: 9780679754145
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 08/30/1994
Pages: 262
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.72h x 4.42w x 0.69d