In the course of his discussion, Bentham expresses forthright views on various aspects of sexuality. In these circumstances, non-procreative sexual activity had the additional benefit of not contributing to an increase in the size of the population. 6 Gamaliel Smith, Not Paul, but Jesus, London, 1823.

Thankfully, there is a post that sketches Bentham’s piece.Īs a side note, check out the eccentricities of Bentham.Ĭamille on Being vs.The present volume contains three essays, Of Sexual Irregularities, Sextus, and General Idea of Not Paul, but Jesus, written in the mid-1810s but never before been published in authoritative form.īentham presents the utilitarian case for sexual liberty on the grounds that the gratification of the sexual appetite constituted the purest form of pleasure, in opposition to the traditional Christian view that the only morally acceptable form of sexual activity was between one man and one woman, within the confines of marriage, for the purpose of procreation.īentham offers classical Greece and Rome, where certain male same-sex relationships were regarded as normal, as alternative models of sexual morality, condemns the hostile portrayal of homosexuals in eighteenth-century literature, and calls for the removal of sanctions, whether imposed by religion, law, or public opinion, from all forms of consensual sexual activity, at least in so far as practised in private.īentham was, moreover, persuaded by Malthus's argument that population growth tended to outstrip food supply. McKown, Behold the Antichrist: Bentham on Religion, Amherst, NY. I’m in the process of reading bits and pieces of it. However, Bentham argues that Jesus may have had a homosexual relationship with the apostle John and Bentham hints that Jesus may have been crucified because of his practice of homosexuality.

III.” Obviously, he couldn’t publish any of his work on homosexuality in his lifetime, and the work itself is quite long. To give biblical evidence for this sexual ethic, Bentham wrote a piece that was never published until 2013! The work is called “Not Paul, but Jesus Vol. For example, an early work defending homosexuality comes from Bentham with the argument that if the people involved are consenting and no one else is harmed by the action, then the action is morally permissible. He also applied utilitarianism when it came to sexual matters. Through this ethic, Bentham endorsed many things such as equality for women, abolishment of slavery, and opposing capital punishment. Jeremy Bentham is well-known for promulgating utilitarianism.

Not Paul, But Jesus by Jeremy Bentham