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9. In response to Zaphiris’s argument from scripture about the right to sexual relations within marriage (1 Cor 7.4-5), Hayward attacks not the argument but the fact that Zaphiris used the word “right,” which leads Hayward to go down a several-paragraph rabbit trail on rights’ based moral claims that don’t touch Zaphiris’s point.
10. He empathies quotations from St John Chrysostom that are not clearly on point, such as from his 24th homily on Romans, which is arguably only about abortions and abortifacient contraception. He doesn’t acknowledge that when St John Chrysostom does talk about Onan, he does not identify his sin as one of contraception.
I do not claim to subscribe to every one of the reasons Hayward gives in his article. The
main point of citing him was to give an example of another Orthodox Christian who’d independently come to a similar position on contraception as myself (to this end I’ve added another source to the article). I sympathise with a number of Hayward’s points, and disagree with others.
:I too don’t follow his “roast beef sandwich” analogy or his reference to ecumenism. Nor do I think he’s accurate on the “pre-1970” point, as you’ve pointed out. However the point in its more accurate form still stands: i.e. is there a single Orthodox figure (council, bishop, theologian, layman) that endorses any form of contraception as acceptable pre-20th century? That point, with its implication that local Orthodox churches have been insidiously affected by the sexual revolution of the 20th century, remains unmet.
:How does point 7 of yours relate to this article being a “flawed piece of polemics”?
:Regarding point 8, I’m not sure what you mean by Gen 38.9 not being “about contraception”? It clearly involves an act of contraception. No Church Fathers that I know of have claimed that Onan was slain purely for an act of contraception. However some have in their commentary noted that Onan’s use of a contraceptive method was an unnatural thing. As for Leviticus, the ritual purity laws contained therein regarding spilling of seed would seem to refer to voluntary emission of semen within the sexual act (not coitus interruptus) or to an involuntary emission (i.e. nocturnal emission).
:Regarding point 9, regardless of whether Hayward’s quarrel with right-based morality is relevant (I’m inclined to agree that it doesn’t seem so), Zaphiris’ argument from scripture seems fairly tenuous – it’s the same old non-sequitur of “sex isn’t only about procreation but also marital unity, therefore it’s fine to actively remove any procreative potential from a sexual act”.
:Regarding point 10, I found Hayward's point that Chrysostom condemned medicines of “atokia” in the 24th Homily to the Romans interesting – the implication being that this was a more general word for medications that prevented “tokia” or childbearing (i.e. an umbrella term for contraceptives and abortifacients). As for Chrysostom’s discussion of Onan, where exactly does he do so? I’m interested in looking at such a passage. Even so, if there wasn’t an explicit identification of Onan as sinning in using coitus interruptus, that wouldn’t constitute an endorsement.
:I was also interested by Hayward’s quotation of St Gregory of Nyssa, no confidante of Jerome’s, Epiphanius’ or Augustine’s - I didn’t know that he also expressed an opinion on sex within marriage which emphasised the importance of its procreative aspect. What did you think of that? Or of St Nicodemus the Hagiorite’s identification of the Sin of Onan with the spilling of seed (see other source I’ve now included for dissenting position 1)? Or of St Maximus the Confessor’s comments: “In relation to women, for example, sexual intercourse, rightly used, has as its purpose the begetting of children. He, therefore, who seeks in it only sensual pleasure uses it wrongly, for he reckons as good what is not good. When such a man has intercourse with a woman, he misuses her.” (400 Chapters on love)?
:I’d also be interested in the criteria you use to classify or identify theologians. --[[User:Gmharvey|Gmharvey]] ([[User talk:Gmharvey|talk]]) 11:12, July 9, 2018 (UTC)