Fridays are for Kissing

Well this Friday is for kissing anyway.  I came across a couple of posts from back in February that cracked me up.  Cynthia Nielsen did a post on the philosophy of kissing, explaining the differences between an Aristotelian kiss, a Hegelian kiss, and several other types of kisses.  Ben Myers followed that up with a theology of kissing.

My favorite quotes from the theology of kissing are:

Augustine: You awaken me to delight in your mouth, and my lips are restless until they’re kissing you.

Luther: If the Word of God tells me to kiss, then I will kiss—and let the pope, the world and the devil be damned!

Hans Küng: The Church’s approach to kissing is in urgent need of the most radical and most far-reaching reform.

Wolfhart Pannenberg: One’s first kiss is a proleptic anticipation of all that is still to come.

N. T. Wright: Every kiss is a dramatic enactment of our return from exile.

But getting back to Cynthia Nielsen's post on the philosophy of kissing there is this hilarious exchange in the comment section, kicked off by Mark Traphagen, aka The Foolish Sage:

the Foolish Sage said...       

How about the Van Tillian kiss? You try to enter into the experience of the one you are kissing. Then you point out to your make out partner that his/her kissing falls short of the ideal that kissing was designed to be, but points toward the real kiss, which of course, is the way you yourself kiss.

Which is why Van Tillians never get a second date.

Cynthia Nielsen said...       

Mark,

Perhaps repentant Van Tilians might get a second date... :)

Ben Myers said...       

But have you ever met a repentant Van Tilian?  ;-)

So I'm guessing there's a lot of single guys up at Westminster.  Or, you need to be married before you go to Westminster because once you get exposed to Van Tillian thought, you can kiss the girls goodbye, yuck yuck!

This begs for a post on denominational kissing, don't you think?  All I can think of at the moment are these:

Presbyterian kissing must be done decently and in order.

Baptists are not allowed to kiss - it could lead to the consumption of alcohol.

Comments

[John Schroeder (Blogotional)]

My favorite church joke of all time

Why don't Baptists have sex standing up?

It might lead to dancing!

[Mark Olson]

The Orthodox kiss only their father (patristically?).

The Emergent kiss but won't commit to what that means.

Roman Catholics kiss when they have permission (subsidarially).

Episcopalians kiss and tell.

[Terry]

Hey, he stole that from Jeff Haynie.

[David Wayne]

Yes he did, didn't he.

[David Wayne]

Good ones Mark!

[Keith Schooley]

Pentecostals kiss, but only when the Spirit moves them!

[Cynthia R. Nielsen]

"So I'm guessing there's a lot of single guys up at Westminster. Or, you need to be married before you go to Westminster because once you get exposed to Van Tillian thought, you can kiss the girls goodbye, yuck yuck!" Here we have at least two (false) assumptions, (1) only men attend Westminster or (2) there are no women Van Tilians, neither of which are the case ;)

Cheers,
Cynthia

[David Wayne]

Cynthia - I stand corrected ;-)

So, maybe the female Van Tillians are the repentant ones??

[Cynthia R. Nielsen]

Just giving you a hard time, David :)

Cheers,
Cynthia

[Terry]

Oh, yeah, Cumberland Presbyterians kiss "whosoever will" kiss them back.

[SteveB]

Assemblies of God kisses generally involve tongues?

[Thea]

Lutherans believe in Lay-lead kissing

[Mark Traphagen]

So you're telling me that Josh Harris's "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" was really a ripoff of Van Til?