Rev'd Dr. Danielle Treweek

Singleness, the "Gift of Celibacy" and Healthy Complementarianism

What does it mean to have the gift of celibacy (or singleness)? Does it mean that you don’t desire sex or marriage? Or that you’ve been given an extra booster shot of the Holy Spirit that gives you radical immunity to sexual temptation (or at least prevents you from serious spiriutal hospitalization)? What actually was Paul talking about when he said that “it’s better to marry than to burn?” (1 Cor 7:7-8).

Adam’s Aloneness Wasn’t Just His Singlehood

Adam was the only creature made in the image of his creator. At the time, there was nothing and no one else like Adam in all of creation; he was the only human being walking on the entire face of the earth. This is what it meant that he was alone. This is what was not good in God’s sight.

Singleness Lessons I Learned from the Early Church

The lessons we can learn from the ancient church about singleness are many and mighty, but they are neither simple nor straightforward. In fact, early church leaders do not offer us a singular narrative about being single. However, when we examine the Christian history of celibacy on its own terms, the conversation yields something far more complex and interesting.

The Humanity of Hamilton

In the character of Alexander Hamilton we see our exquisite, tragic, complicated selves reflected back to us, as if in a mirror. We see our yearnings for meaning, significance, relationship, security, pleasure all laid bare, alongside our self-defeating and self-corrupting ways.