Aquinas Response To Homosexuality Essay

Records from Medieval Europe indicate a wide variety of responses to homosexuality, from acceptance, to confusion, to disgust. While these responses certainly varied from region to region, and era to era, the overall consensus shared between the majority of academics and theologians, was that homosexuals were sinners deserving of persecution and prosecution. However, even amongst those who espoused opposition to homosexuality, on the grounds that it contradicted what was written in the bible, the responses to such practises were varied. Certain individuals, like Thomas Aquinas, opposed homosexuality on the grounds that it was illogical. Others, such as Alain de Lille, considered it to be unnatural, while still others, such as Peter Damian,

Instead, Aquinas' opposition to such practises exists because he considers them to be illogical. Aquinas considers the purpose of sex to be the furthering of the species, and it is for this reason that he implicates sex for mere pleasure as a sin alongside homosexuality; because such activities do not accomplish the fundamental purpose of sex, Aquinas, scholar and logician, cannot help but view them as illogical. Moreover, Aquinas's treatment of sex is in many ways quite advanced. Aquinas states that "the unnatural vice is not the greatest sin among the species of lust … Adultery, seduction and rape which are injurious to our neighbor are seemingly more contrary to the love of our neighbor, than unnatural sins, by which no other person is injured." While Aquinas still condemns homosexuality, he also suggests that it is not as serious as other sins of lust which are harmful to another person, such as rape. Thus, while Aquinas' persecution of homosexuality remains regrettable, his acknowledgment that such practises should be considered less sinful than more forceful sins of lust remains a small but significant advancement in the medieval acceptance of