In spite of the fact that marriage is recognized as a sacrament by the Church, the attitude of Christian thought towards the sexual relationship and its spiritualizing potentialities has been in practice singularly limited and negative. From the start Christian authors have been ill at ease with the whole subject. Sexual activity tended
to be seen as a sign of man's sinful and degenerate state and the modern Christian is taught tο distinguish between love in the New Testament sense -agape -and eros, and tο see eros as a debased form of agape, if not actuaIly opposed tο it. Αll in all, the Church has done scant justice to its insight that sexual love is, at least potentially, a sacrament. [...]