“Celibacy for the Common Good”
by Wesley HillCelibacy is not simply a practice that improves an individual's self-mastery. It is a way of life that strengthens churches, communities, and cities. Continue Reading »
The Way God Conducts Us
by Wesley HillAt an academic conference not too long ago, I delivered a paper on St. Paul’s view of marriage and celibacy. In my paper, I took Paul’s side, extolling his vision of marriage and celibacy as interlocking, mutually reinforcing Christian vocations. On the one hand, I said, marriage can be a melody hummed by any pedestrian Christian couple that still calls to mind the full grandeur of the symphony of Christ’s love for the Church. Likewise, the Christian celibate can bear witness to that same love. By giving up the solace of an earthly spouse and the prospect of birthing heirs, the celibate gestures with her very body to a future time when “they neither marry nor are given in marriage . . . because they are equal to angels” (Luke 20:35, 36). Continue Reading »
Marriage and Celibacy: Lifelong Grace One Day at a Time
by Betsy Childs HowardWhile marriage and celibacy may technically be opposites, they have at least one thing in common. Both can seem overwhelming when one imagines them lasting for a lifetime. Continue Reading »
Escaping the Prison of the Self
by Wesley HillC. S. Lewis once offered advice to a soon-to-be-married man on why he ought to avoid masturbation. But his rationale speaks to celibate Christians as well. Continue Reading »
The Rapist and the Virgin
by Gilbert MeilaenderIt may just have been a throwaway line, a presumed witticism, to which he gave little thought; in which case he is convicted merely of intellectual sloppiness. But it may also have been seriously meant, a revelation of his considered judgment; in which case he offers us a window into the blindness . . . . Continue Reading »
Looking at Islam After Kipling and Hesse
by Richard John NeuhausBooks on Islam, we are told, are enjoying brisk sales. For reasons related to the imperialist past of those countries, intellectuals in England and France have generally paid more attention to Islam than have Americans. Apart from academic specialists, American interest in Islam has been limited . . . . Continue Reading »
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