Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
For Augustine every sex act not for procreation is a sin. Augustine never left any space for healthy sexual desire after the fall. Thomas Aquinas follows Augustine’s opinion when he says that sexuality exists for the sake of propagation and for the strengthening of the marriage bond between a man and a woman. So here again there’s the idea that sexuality is just an instrument, and there’s no inherent value in physical sexual enjoyment itself.
But then Thomas also borrows from Aristoteles’ view that the spiritual and the physical are closely related to each other instead of in conflict, and that reason should ‘coach’ our desires instead of suppressing them, and so accepts that the physical-sensual part of the person has its own longings and joy. Sensual pleasure is good for the physical-sensual and therefore for the entire person.
So I think it's pretty confusing under what circumstances you're allowed to enjoy yourself. As a byproduct mostly.
Your claim has moved from "They're not exactly "encouraged to enjoy sex with their spouse", that's new age degeneracy" to something along the lines of "Christians are not hedonists". The fact remains that Christian teaching has in fact encouraged Christians to enjoy sex with their spouse, and has done so for quite a long time.
In what way is it confusing? Pleasure should not be treated as an end unto itself. We should derive pleasure in ways consonant with an ordered, faithful life, which is no great hardship, nor unduly restrictive; I have lived as a hedonist, and I can say from personal experience that the hedonic treadmill is very real.
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