Christian love

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema crdbronx at erols.com
Fri Jul 6 09:40:32 PDT 2001


Thank you, Yoshie. This inspired me to find my copy of Donne and (probably for the first time, and fairly quickly) read the Holy Sonnets. As you say, Christianity is not at all a "simply gendered" phenomenon. Hence my original comment that


> Christian
> >men are encouraged to show masculine sadism, Christian women to show feminine
> >masochism. But in each the other component lurks under the surface, showing
> >itself in certain circumstances
>

Donne is a wonderful example of this. Similarly, in the essay on masochism, which cites several kinds of masochism, Freud's case examples of feminine masochism are in men. Unfortunately, he never addressed himself so much to masculine sadism, but it is implicit. Donne's feminine masochism comes out clearly here, as he is addressing the deity, and, sometimes seems to be mixing his own identity up with Christ's. As in Sonnet XI -- "Spit in my face, you Jewes, and pierce my side..." It is not just anybody, but, in fact, God, who he wants to ravish him.

There is nothing simple about any manifestation of sado-masochism, and its complexity is correspondingly valuable as a tool of understanding. No large social phenomenon, including christianity, will show just one configuration of the sadistic and the masochistic. However, the fact that Christianity defines the all-powerful deity as masculine and paternal imposes a broad gendering that admits of many nuances. Also, the ambiguous relationship between God and Jesus in christian mythology and the many definitions of how the christian is to understand it have reflected many types of social experience. There are complicated correspondences between types of family structure that have prevailed in different times and places and the prevalent patterns of gendered sado-masochism. Mary, too, has added another layer of complexity to this, and often has been the largest component of the large residual element of paganism in Christianity. Not surprisingly, Protestantism has tended to de-emphasize her.

Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:


> >I read this too. It's no surprise. Since Christian faith is an ideological
> >expression of historically specific gender relations with combined
> >sadistic and
> >masochistic components (gendered sado-masochism), it's only to be
> >expected that
> >some gross forms of masculine sadism will come up from time to time. Christian
> >men are encouraged to show masculine sadism, Christian women to show feminine
> >masochism. But in each the other component lurks under the surface, showing
> >itself in certain circumstances
> >
> >There are corresponding feminine masochist manifestations. We on
> >the left tend
> >to like them a lot more, because they often lead to political action we
> >sympathize with, ahd even see as heroic.
> >
> >Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema
>
> "Masochism" doesn't appear to be so simply gendered in Christianity
> as you suggest ("feminine = masochist vs. masculine = sadist").
> Here's John Donne desiring to be ravished.
>
> ***** JOHN DONNE (1572-1631)
>
> HOLY SONNETS: BATTER MY HEART, THREE-PERSON'D GOD
>
> Original Text: John Donne, Poems, by J. D. With elegies on the
> authors death (M. F. for J. Marriot, 1633). MICF no. 556 ROBA. Facs.
> edn. Menston: Scolar Press, 1969. PR 2245 A2 1633A. STC 7045.
> First Publication Date: 1633.
>
> Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
> As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
> That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
> Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
> I, like an usurp'd town to'another due,
> Labor to'admit you, but oh, to no end;
> Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
> But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
> Yet dearly'I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
> But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
> Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again,
> Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
> Except you'enthrall me, never shall be free,
> Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
>
> <http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/donne29.html> *****
>
> Yoshie



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