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Through the ages, religion and sexuality have been deeply intertwined.  The historian Mircea Eliade said that sex has been seen as a pathway to the Divine.  He called sexual passion a 'hierophany' -- something that reveals the sacred to the human.

Today we hear from Jennifer Wright Knust. She's an assistant professor of religion at Boston University.  She's also an ordained American Baptist pastor. Her latest book is Unprotected Texts: The Bible's Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire.

We also hear from Donna Freitas who is associate professor of religion at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York.  She has made a study of college students with one question in mind:  how do they  reconcile their interest in spirituality with a hook-up culture that appears to shrivel the soul?   Donna Freitas is the author of Sex and the Soul:  Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance and Religion on America's College Campuses.

(This Tapestry episode is an encore presentation from February 20, 2011)