Another Response to Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler's The Sexual Person

Abstract

In their book, which has received mixed responses, Salzman and Lawler develop a “revisionist” approach to Catholic sexual ethics. They invite respectful dialogue. In this article I offer another response and attempt to engage in such dialogue by addressing both some things they say which I agree with and some things they say which I find problematic in certain ways. This includes their treatments of experience, science, and the Bible as these relate to homosexuality, and their approach to Christian sexual ethics and how they apply this to homosexuality and some other sexual issues. While Salzman and Lawler attempt to undermine a number of traditional Christian and official Catholic norms on these subjects, I offer some evidence and arguments in support of these norms. In this way I hope to contribute in a small way to the understanding of sexual persons and ethics.