The contraceptive culture has all but removed any connection between the sex act and procreation. So ingrained is this mentality that to be against birth control in most circles, even Christian ones, is greeted as though one were arguing that the Apollo moon missions were faked. In the world s eyes, children are something to be prevented and controlled, not new souls to be cherished. What is celebrated today is perpetual adolescence. His book reminds readers that the connection between the Christian faith and childhood is as strong as it is ancient.
Today s religious liberals think it is appalling to oppose abortion.
Early Christians, however, stood squarely against infanticide, abortion, and pederasty. While so noble in most of its thought, the classical mind erred about the child. Classical thinkers saw a child as not being wholly human because he had not reached rational adulthood. The ethicist and philosopher Peter Singer, who was notoriously appointed to a prominent chair at Princeton University not long ago, holds a similar position. The writers Saward draws upon faced an age besmirched by Nietzsche and Marx.