The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2200 page)

,
maithuna
,
pañca-mak
ra
,
Sahaj
y
,
aktism
,
Tantrika
,
Tantrism
). In Christianity, the issue of control led in a different direction. In so far as human sex transcends both reproduction and biological imperatives, it is no longer an end of that kind in itself. How, then, does it relate to the end of salvation and the vision of God? One answer is to say, Extremely well: the union of a man and a woman, transcending the union of male and female in a biological sense, has seemed religiously to be the nearest one can come on earth to the final union with God. But another answer has been to say that sex is of lesser value than the final end of God, and is among those things which may have to be given up if the unqualified love of God is to flourish. This
ascetic
option gives the highest value to
celibacy
, chastity, and virginity, and it became the dominant voice of the official Church, especially in the West. Male resistance to the erosion of male control has produced in all religions vigorous defences of the status quo, along with a deriding, as ‘political correctness’, of attempts to implement the recognition that women are no longer at the disposal of men. The
Vatican
resistance to the courtesy of gender-inclusive language is an obvious example of this. Contraception (see
BIRTH AND POPULATION CONTROL
) has been known to all religions and has been differently evaluated, but in general it has always been linked to the priority of reproduction, especially of male children who will continue the line of descent. In the last century, the development of simpler and more effective contraception has broken the link: sex and reproduction are no longer synonymous. The problems this is causing for male-dominated religious systems, intent on preserving the
status quo
, are great.

 
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(
c.
1470–1550)
. Italian Jewish biblical commentator. After settling in Bologna, he practised medicine and set up a
bet-midrash
(‘house of study’). He wrote commentaries on the
Pentateuch
, the
Song of Songs
, and
Ecclesiastes
(1567), on the
Psalms
(1586), on
Job
(1589), and on
Jonah
,
Habakkuk
, and
Zechariah
(1724). In general, he kept to the literal meaning of the text; although he sometimes used
allegory
, he avoided kabbalistic interpretation. He also produced a work of philosophy, the
’Or Ammim
(Light of Nations, 1537), the Lat. tr. of which was dedicated to Henri II of France.

 
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see
SHIROMA
GURDW
R
PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE
.