Plundering Egypt: A Subversive Christian Ethic of Economy. By G.P.Wagenfuhr. Pp. xvi, 258, Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2016, $33.00.

If an emotional ethic like caritas was embodied, how did some come to engage in ‘deviant’ behaviours such as premarital sex and why did a society so enculturated in a Christian ethic come to have such a significant illegitimacy rate? This chapter uses a case study of servants and their sex lives to explore how people reconciled their ‘sinful’ behaviour with their commitment to caritas. It first looks at the ways in which individuals justified their romantic feelings that led to sex within the moral framework of the community, as well as those—especially men—who instead made a claim to human frailty as an excuse for misbehaviour. It then attends to how the community responded to such activities, particularly in making life uncomfortable and encouraging those who did not conform to move on. A final section looks at how sinners were restored to the community once they had reformed, especially attending to rituals of reconciliation and peace, including touch, kisses, and sharing food and drink.

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The Order of Charity

Pascal: Reasoning and Belief ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198849117.003.0019 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 341-357

Author(s):

Michael Moriarty

Keyword(s):

Christian Ethic ◽

The Will ◽

Logical Order ◽

Love Of God ◽

The Mind ◽

Spiritual Body

The apparent disorderliness of Scripture is merely superficial; it possesses a non-logical order which appeals to the heart. The affective aspects of this notion (hitherto subordinated to the cognitive) are discussed, in ways that illuminate Pascal’s conception of faith. The fundamental message of Scripture is the necessity of charity (the love of God). The notion of the three orders (the flesh, the mind, and the will) is explained. The greatness of Christ is as much above intellectual greatness as intellectual values transcend purely material magnitude. The love of God enables liberation from toxic self-love: the Christian ethic consists in learning to see ourselves not as isolated entities but as ‘thinking members’, parts of a spiritual body, the community of the faithful.

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