[Between the Lines]

Just the fact that we are discussing nudity in art shows that the nudity distracts from the message of the art unless sex is the message.

I may be showing my age again, but I remember when porn was not as common in our society as it is today. And back then every boy was a lover of art and diligently searched out the art books in the library for lusty perusal.

BTW Rubens messed me up!

[klossg]

Just the fact that we are discussing nudity in art shows that the nudity distracts from the message of the art unless sex is the message.

Yes we are discussing nudity but heck God created us without clothes - in his image. It seems strange to me at times, especially when our Catholicism mixes so well with the naked body.

I like Rubens too. He throws it out there doesn't he? Paints them as if they do not know they are naked ... but they are completely naked!

One of the greatest teachings from John Paul II's Theology of the Body is that the body specifically in its male and female forms is Trinitarian in nature. From the Athanasian Creed: "The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." God is a communion of persons, facing each other in love. Same with man and woman ... created in the image of God, capable of bringing life and love into reality.

From Christopher West's talk on John Paul II's Theology of the Body: "The sexual embrace is the foundation stone of human life itself. The family – and, in turn, culture itself – springs from this embrace. In short, as sex goes, so go marriage and the family. As marriage and the family go, so goes civilization."