Augustine invites us to look at our promiscuity through the lens of idolatry, not in order to induce shame, but in order to illuminate the depth of the hunger and the significance of its disorder. The problem isn’t sex; it’s what I expect from sex. The problem with promiscuity isn’t (just) that it transgresses the law or that it chews up other people and spits them out as leftovers; it’s not simply the fact that it hollows me out and reduces me to my organs and glands all as a perverted way to feed a soul-hunger. The baseline problem with promiscuity is that it doesn’t work and is doomed to
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