John Updike's carnal Christianity

John Updike's carnal Christianity

John Updike was not so much a “penis with a thesaurus”, as he was once described, as a penis with a theology. His parish was the marital bed; his liturgy, the orgasm. His grand subject was, of course, sex. Yet his inordinate fascination with its mechanics was accompanied by a loftier metaphysical obsession. Simply put, Updike spent a lifetime trying to reconcile promiscuity with Christianity. Over 60 volumes, each approaching this idée fixe from…