Jesus taught that singleness to be a gift from God. This was a possible arrangement for clergy, who were not barred from marriage in the fourth and fifth centuries but were encouraged to be celibate. Pregnancy was dangerous for women, infertility could carry shame, and raising children was difficult and—in an age of high child mortality—often grievous. Neither freedom nor intimacy were ends in themselves, but byproducts of the pursuit of union and communion with God as part of the family of Christ. 4 Ways Singleness Is Harder Than Marriage (And 4 Helpful Tips!) Subscribers receive full access to the archives.Evangelical assumptions about singleness still need rethinkingMatrimony rates are in decline, even among conservative Christians. Even hermits were understood as “living in connection with families and households” and producing spiritual offspring. (Epictetus’s argument was an outlier among Roman Stoics, most of whom supported marriage as “a preferred indifferent,” something the philosopher should undertake provided he did so virtuously. Efthymiadis reminds us that an important difference separates the Roman world from modern liberal societies. As in Christian marriage, so in other forms of Christian community, intimacy followed commitment. Jennifer Cromwell’s discussion of Coptic Christians in western Thebes suggests that monasteries likewise fulfilled James’s admonitions, providing support to widows and perhaps divorcees. )Singleness may have been more widespread among non-elites. Some of the most careful and creative essays in this volume tease out from archeological evidence or census records the number of singles in Rome or other cities and regions in the Roman world. The lack of regulation made all the more striking the legislative efforts of Emperor Augustus to ensure legitimate offspring.
Yet Chrysostom strongly affirms marriage in his homilies on Ephesians (among other writings), and Jerome cautions that he does not condemn marriage outright but compares it to celibacy as one compares silver to gold.Against ascetic critiques, Augustine wrote “On the Good of Marriage” in 401 a.d. Though female procuresses of prostitutes were exempt from Augustus’s law against adultery, they were barred from the economic and social status of matron. Marriage will grow your walk with God too, but singleness has its own unique blessings that you won’t have during any other time in … Ultimately, for the Fathers, “what mattered was not living as a single person but dedication to a holy cause through persistent chastity.”Ascetics saw themselves as members of the household of God, and so were never alone.
Singleness, according to Christianity, is not Plan B – it is a viable option for those who choose it.
6. And in Roman Egypt, where marriage is usually seen as having been universally practiced, Huebner estimates that more than two-fifths of the adult population was unmarried at any given time. Social and cultural expectations surrounding marriage and singleness persisted into Late Antiquity, after the Augustan legislation had been (largely) repealed.
Early Christianity presented singleness as a viable, good alternative, which might in fact make you more profitable in your Christian life - and happier - than marriage and family. Matthew 19:11-12 states that a person who marries is to leave his or her parents and remain married, but the person who remains single does not carry the responsibility of marriage. . The mutuality of sexual rights and authority that Paul urged was, needless to say, not always present within marriage. But Roman men were not expected to reciprocate.Roman marriage ideology had its critics, and “singleness,” especially of young men and older widows, was common enough. Christianity challenged elite Roman attitudes toward marriage, provided new motivations for remaining unmarried, and developed forms of community to sustain unmarried lives.Early Christian theology did, however, challenge traditional Greek and Roman expectations for marriage.