The contempt of and the struggle against
the lower form of eroticism animating the dualistic period was
absolutely consistent; asceticism represents the highest form of culture
attainable by that period. (The rejection of spiritual love was an
inconsistency on the part of the clergy.) The principle of personality
was the fundamental principle of Christianity; this is clearly expressed
by the fact that Christianity regarded the soul as the supreme value.
And what is the soul but the consciousness of human personality
conceived naively as substance? In the light of this higher intuition
sensuousness was bound to appear base and degrading.
It is therefore historically correct, though essentially an error, to
regard Christianity as the religion of asceticism, for the asceticism of
the Middle Ages was nothing but the immature stage of the principle of
personality. Directly spiritual love was no longer in opposition to
sexuality, directly a synthesis had been effected, Christianity should
have drawn the obvious conclusion from its fundamental principle and
acknowledged love, which united the hostile elements.
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