"Ritual Prostitution, a problem for early Church" Discuss.

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“Ritual Prostitution, a problem for early Church.”  Discuss

The act of ritual prostitution was commonly identified with the church at Corinth.  Corinth during the lifetime of Paul was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire.  It served as a commercial bridge between the East and West, attracting immigrants, merchants, traders and visitors from all areas around the Mediterranean Sea.  The inhabitants, coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, retained many social customs and religious beliefs and practices peculiar to their places of origin.  Corinthians were also notorious for their love of pleasures and lax morals.  Consequently, the church at Corinth was exposed to a bewildering variety of customs and beliefs and to a corrosive atmosphere of public immorality, all of which encouraged a lack of moral discipline and divisiveness in the predominantly Gentile Christian community.  

The Christians at Corinth produced highly divergent interpretations of what the Gospel demanded in the way of sexual ethics, ranging from libertinism to a complete rejection of both marriage and sexual intercourse.  It is probable that the libertine party at Corinth had adopted slogans such as “All things are permitted” and “Food is for the belly and the belly for food” (implying that sexual intercourse is as uncomplicated an expression of natural desire as eating is).  Paul argues that the body of a Christian belongs to Christ.  Therefore, all sexual expression, then, must take Christ’s ownership into account

The act of Ritual Prostitution was one of many of the immoralities found at the Church of Corinth, including the abuse of the Lord’s supper, various forms of sexual immorality and food offered to idols, to name but a few.  In general terms, ‘prostitution’ is the performance of sexual acts solely for the purpose of material gain.  Persons prostitute themselves when they grant favours to others in exchange for money, gifts or other payments and in so doing, use their bodies as commodities.  In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to those who engage overtly in such sexual-economic transactions, usually for a specific sum of money.  

Though, the question is specifically related to ritual prostitution (1 Corinthians 5), in order to answer the question on the Church’s doctrine on the issue, it is necessary to generalise and include ‘prostitution’ as a whole.  In other words, we shall have to regard ‘ritual prostitution’ in terms of ‘prostitution as a whole’ to evaluate as to whether the Church’s doctrine is adequate.

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In terms of Jewish opposition to the problem, the Torah (Law) had little to say on the subject of secular prostitution.  It prohibited parents from dedicating their children as sacred prostitutes, but there is nothing to tell us whether its authors would have objected equally to the ideas of a master making his slave-woman a secular prostitute or even a father doing so with his daughter.  There are two references to secular prostitution in the Old Testament, which offer any details as to how it was regarded.  In both cases, an unmarried women is understood to have chosen this ...

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