Homo Pontifex
Man is by definition a pontifex, a "builder of
bridges"--or "a bridge". For man possesses essentially
two dimensions, an outward and an inward; he has, therefore, the right
to both, otherwise he would not be man, precisely; to speak of a man
without surroundings is as contradictory as to speak of a man without
a core.
On the one hand, we live in phenomena which surround us and of which we are a part, and on the other hand, our hearts are rooted in God; consequently we must realize as perfect an equilibrium as possible between our life in the world and our life directed towards the Divine. Obviously this latter life determines the former and gives it all its meaning; the rights of outwardness depend upon measures that pertain to the inward and that the inward imposes upon us.
Worldliness exteriorizes the inward; spirituality interiorizes the outward; that is, it discerns in the ouward the archetypes, which by their essentiality are interiorizing. Profane men "carnalize" the spirit, if one may put it thus, whereas spiritual men--the "twice-born"--spiritualize the "flesh"; they spiritualize it in respect of the metaphysical transparency of phenomena, while excluding it in respect of pure and simply materiality, which coincides with passionality.
Morally speaking, Christianity is more ascetical, and Islam, more symbolist; nonetheless, Christianity could not exclude marriage any more than Islam could exclude fasting.
This is the mystery of compensatory complementarity (= Yin-Yang), in terms of which the spiritual "yes" must comprise a "no", and the spiritual "no", a "yes".