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Question II
Redemption though the mortification of the flesh fasting, hair shirts, flagellation, celibacy, reclusion, martyrdom, et cetera has been prevalent in the history of Catholicism. Since pain and denial can lead to an acute awareness of the body, did such practices ever have any sexual components for ascetics?
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I cannot doubt that mortification for religious reasons at times stirred sexual feelings in those who practiced it, as their writings use the language of sexuality to describe their experiences, just as people today experience sexual pleasure in S/M. One question is the extent to which they accepted that pleasure as coming from God or rejected it as part of the sickness of the body they were trying to mortify. |
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