Purity. When I think of this word – I conjure up an image of someone who is morally excellent in every way. A pure person is set apart from the dirtier facets of everyday human life. He or she will be well practiced in avoiding anything that could damage their purity and lower them to […]
Category: Marriage
The S-word.
Concerning Virginity by Ambrose (21,477 words) Of Holy Virginity (18,933 words), Of The Good of Marriage (13,792 words), Of the Good of Widowhood (11,942 words) and On Marriage and Concupiscence (40,252 words) by Augustine On Virginity (24,741 words) by Gregory of Nyssa Letter to a Young Widow (6,741 words) By John Chrysostom To His Wife […]
Jerusalem’s Council and Nashville’s Statement
I can’t help but think that this has all happened before. It was thousands of years ago in one of the more contentious capitals of Rome’s far-flung empire. A fledgling Christianity was in turmoil. Gentiles, of all people, appeared to be flocking to the faith. Some believed that they ought to be circumcised in order […]
A Sort of Love I Don’t Understand
Christianity taught me a lot of things; but I’m not certain how to love was one of them. As I was growing up when True Love Waits and I Kissed Dating Goodbye were all the rage, a great many sermons outlined what my Biblically-informed family-oriented life ought to look like so that when it was […]
Suitable Matches
“Why didn’t Lady Margaret choose Mr. Charles? She obviously loved him!” Anna complained while watching her favorite period drama which was set in the Roaring Twenties. “She had to consider her family. Mr. Edward had a lot of connections, friends they could trust to come to their aid. and Mr. Thomas was wealthy beyond her […]
Thecla
Thecla’s story begins at her window. She listens from her window to the speaker whose been invited to her neighbor’s house – Paul of Tarsus. For three days and nights she’s fascinated by the things that she’s heard – so much so that she won’t go to eat or drink or attend to her usual […]
Talking About Singleness
One thing I have come to learn in recent weeks is that the things that people talk about most are the things they care about the most. I’ve eavesdropped on all sorts of conversations – from family to fishing, from shows to sports, from church to cooking. In Christianity, the conversation is usually centered on […]
Serving Single Christians: Acknowleding Failure
Swimming against the tide is never easy. It’s tiring and can make you feel that you aren’t making very much progress. In a marriage-obsessed Christianity, being a single Christian is swimming against the tide … and it’s being invisible. Statistically, in the states, the number of people who are single slightly outnumber the married couples […]
A Question on Divorce
Matthew 19’s first section begins with a question: “Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”” Where did this question come from? It’s actually a question of the interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 between two well-known rabbis – Hillel […]
Be Persuaded 