Secular Art vs. Religious Sex: "Adam & Eve" by Lucas Cranach the Elder

JEWISH JOURNAL
By Yaakov Rosenblatt

Eve giving Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Wikimedia Commons

Why is popular culture obsessed with sexuality? I would posit that in secular culture, sex is an obsession because sex is where the human touches the beyond. Sex is secular holiness because sex is art. The religious world view is different. Sex, to religious folk, is much more than leaving time and space. It is not art but intimacy, achieving oneness with spouse in the presence of God. Sex, to the religious soul, is achieving unity with the perfect one, in the presence of all that is Perfect. One values art, the other values intimacy. One touches the sublime, the other touches eternity. [link]