Constructing a Doctrine for the Ecclesia Militans

Abstract

Given that modern American society contains a plurality of religious and secular views of the meaning and purpose of human existence, together with various ethical norms that are appended to those conceptions, it seems inappropriate to enforce on all persons in our society any one comprehensive set of values. Indeed, the works of scholars like Michel Foucault, have suggested that all presumably universal sexual ethical norms are inherently tyrannical. To be sure, the “voices that speak loudest across the ages are usually the voices of the most powerful groups or classes.”1 With this in mind, this essay serves as an analysis of how one influential early Christian, Clement of Alexandria, constructed his doctrine of human sexuality within the context of second-century Roman Egypt. It becomes apparent quite quickly that later Christians used Clement’s contextualized understanding of human sexuality as a basis for making universal theological claims. Such a strategy is scrutinized in light of the apparent discontinuities in historical contexts. By contrast, I offer programmatic suggestions toward the construction of an African American doctrine of sexuality that are appropriate to our modern context, even as we continue to live in the framework of what Pauline scholars call “already and not yet.”

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