An interesting idea I found in this book so far is that of the autonomy of language in Christianity’s way of dealing with carnal pleasure.
‘To be made pure religion was to be symbolized by words, or discourse, and alienated from sinful bodies and institutionalised sacred referents. The sight or sound of the word was meant to provide an inspirational source for the construction and maintenance of righteous self-identities.’ (p. 43)
‘the Protestant modern body was relatively dislocated from its surroundings and attempted to draw on the discursive Word as a central source of self.’
‘while the Protestant body was progressively ‘closed-off’ from others, the self became more open to be filled according to personal inspiration.’ (p. 46)