sexual minority. Readers disposed toward the theory of a beneficent "progress" in human affairs may have their illusion flattered by comparing present-day attitudes with the violence of the Dark and Middle Ages, during which period certain "abominable" practices were punishable by castration or by death by stoning or burning alive. On the other hand, the less complacent reader may compare the "tolerant" mood of the present with the situation which has existed in certain Oriental cultures from time to time, and which still exists in certain areas of the world today:

"I have been sitting in a lovely club-bar across the street where Greek boys congregate, they are friendly & they make love between men like in Plato, the whole classic love scene preserved intact with no faggotry involved, a huge relief to find it's really true & good as an Ideal, but for real." (The poet Allen Ginsburg in the magazine, Pa'lante)

Whatever your disposition, Eros is rewarding volume, beautifully printed, and containing lists of the sources of the materials which has been excerpted. I realize that many things must be omitted from such a compendium: I only wish that more of our contemporary writers might have been included-or this superb prophetic line of Whitman:

"I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon."

Paul Cordell

CHRISTIANITY AND SEX, Stuart B. Babbage. IVP Series in Contemporary Christian Thought No. 4. Chicago, InterVarsity Press, 1963.

There is a strong distinction between the morality of sex and the morality of ethics, yet they are invariably thought of as inseparable in our Christian society. The monograph reviewed here also has this primary

criticism against it. It gives the strict and well founded limits of Christianity's sexual life as it should be and as read from the Bible by the author. There does seem room for argument in interpretation between Christendom's denominations, especially Catholicism, if they in turn writing this review. But my comment is not sectarian. It is this.

Christianity's greatness lies in the Christian ethic which is historically: and humanly unique. This ethic is in essence social, i. e.; a code for compassionate human behavior among all men. It pervades all of man's being.

The specious sexual morality Christianity unsuccessfully has tried to foist onto humanity in the name of purity it to its loss. Sex is a private thing. It becomes degrading when it becomes public and therefore is not to be delimited except in public expression. Sex is essentially based on love or the search for, in consent, and because of this personal control is extra-social or outside of society's ethic, whether religious or legal.

Now this is not to say that problems do not exist in this privacy. They pitifully do. But this is outside the intent here, and indeed outside the comprehension of Christianity if we are to search such literature for answers as provoked this quasi-review.

It seems unnecessary to go into any historical support of the balance and acceptance of the variety of sexuality, since it runs through history before Christ and into the present, notwithstanding all the theorizing done since the compilation of the Bible.

What is implied here in no way endangers the very basic value of the family atmosphere to the rearing of the young of our society. This social aspect of the human community has never been in jeopardy. It does recognize, however, that our present sexual mores are blind, or at best double valued. This is not a new