On pleasure

Absolutely, if you understand Christianity simply as offering you rules and regulations, you will feel it as oppressive. If you think of Christian faith as opening up to you the depths of a beloved object which you in any case enjoy, but framing that, then you will discover that Christian faith opens up the possibilities of pleasure.

You know, I give example of … sex might be a very good example. We are also sexual beings and often sex, especially in today’s culture, is very important to us, possibly more important than it has been in previous centuries. But nonetheless we often find that, people often find it’s kind of bereft of the deeper meaning. I think in the Christian tradition, if you think about sex as a sacrament, rather than sex as satisfaction of animal desire, suddenly the whole sexual activity and experience acquires much deeper layers of meaning and deeper satisfaction and acquires it from the faith that hasn’t simply come down bearing about what you should do and what you shouldn’t do, but opened up the possibility of this experience from within. I think that’s where Christian faith lives, that’s when it’s so incredibly beautiful, and I think that’s what we need to rediscover.