Celibacy Definition (Britannica.com)
Celibacy, the state of being unmarried, usually in association with the
role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term is
applied only to those for whom the unmarried state is the result of a
sacred vow, act of renunciation, or religious conviction. Celibacy has
existed in some form or another throughout religious history and in
virtually all the major religions of the world.
Wherever celibacy has appeared, it has generally accompanied the view that
the religious life is essentially different or even alienated from the
normal structures of society and the normal drives of human nature. On the
other hand, the religious style that disparages celibacy gives priority to
the role of religion as employing and sanctifying the "natural" states of
life: sexuality, family, and work.
Types of celibacy.
Celibacy may be examined in terms of its various contexts. One type is
sacerdotal celibacy, the celibacy of priests and priestesses. A priest may
be defined as one who, as a mediator, performs the sacred function of
communicating through rites the needs of the people to heaven and the
sacred power and presence from heaven to the congregation. His function is
objective. Its efficacy is assured if the priest conducts the proper rite
and has the proper qualifications of ordination and, perhaps, of ritual
purity, regardless of whether he is particularly moral or fervent.
Celibacy would be such an objective mark of special state and ritual
purity. Celibacy probably is derived from taboos that regarded sexual
power as a rival to religious power, and the sexuality of the opposite sex
as a polluting factor, especially in sacred or crisis situations.
Another type of celibacy is the monastic. The monk's main motive will be
moral and spiritual advancement, not the ritual purity required for
sacerdotal rites. To this end the interior freedom, the opportunity for
asceticism and meditation, and perhaps the "new family" of the religious
community, all contribute to a sense of separation from the ordinary that
releases the monk for religious growth. Types of monasticism range from
the solitary--the hermit in the woods or desert, the anchorite living in
isolation in a church or monastery--through the cenobite living a
stabilized monastic life in community, to the mendicant ascetic who
wanders from place to place gathering alms. In any case, the celibate
state is viewed as an inseparable part of his way of life.
Institutional celibacy for women frequently has no connection with
sacerdotalism and is rather designed to aid spiritual advancement.
Virginity and celibacy are considered to be assets in the attainment of
spiritual goals. Generally, institutional female celibates are nuns in
residential cloisters, although occasional solitaries, like the anchoress
(female hermit) Dame Julian of Norwich (14th-15th century) may be noted.
Individual noninstitutional and nonsacerdotal religious celibacy is
normally the state of the lay celibate or the occasional clergyman in a
faith not requiring celibacy, who makes a vow to remain unmarried out of
devotion or to allow the performance of some special religious service.
Celibacy in primitive religions.
Among primitive peoples, the celibate state is chiefly connected with
shamans and ritual purity. Not all shamans are unmarried, but because the
shaman has undergone a profound initiatory experience and has had a quite
extraordinary calling, the prototype of the celibate may be found among
his ranks.
Celibacy in the ancient civilizations.
In the great civilizations of antiquity, celibacy emerged in various
contexts. The requirements for the Vestal Virgins of Rome, celibate for at
least the thirty years of their service, indicate that celibacy had some
place in a very ancient stratum of Roman religion. As classical
civilization developed, two types of religious styles involving masculine
celibacy appeared, that of the ascetic philosopher and that of the priest
of the mystery religions. The Pythagoreans are an excellent example of the
former. Pythagoras himself established a small community that set a
premium on study, vegetarianism, and sexual restraint or abstinence. Later
philosophers believed that celibacy would be conducive to the detachment
and equilibrium required by the philosopher's calling. The Stoic
philosopher Epictetus (born c. AD 50) taught that the ideal teacher would
be unmarried and that his task required a calm freedom from family care.
A different mood was set by the celibate priests of the mysteries.
Celibacy was especially characteristic of priest-devotees of the Great
Mother cults. The well-organized priesthood of the religion of Isis, for
example, represented serene sacerdotalism. Sexual abstinence was an
absolute requirement of those who celebrated her holy mysteries.
Similarly, the increasing number of cults--e.g., Manichaeans, Gnostics,
and Hermeticists--typically had an inner circle requiring strict
continence. Thus, many important religious movements in the classical
world envisioned continence as an ideal and set the stage for Christian
celibacy and monasticism.
Celibacy in the religions of the East.
In Hinduism, celibacy is divorced from the priesthood, which is
hereditary. Prominent, however, among the religious personages of India
are the sadhus, "holy men," who live a life free of possessions and family
obligation. The sadhus have no organization or corporate discipline. Many
sadhus, male and female, become celibates after marriage or widowhood;
others early in life. The sadhu is one who has left the type of life ruled
by the order of dharma (cosmic and societal law; i.e., of caste, family,
money, state, and all their responsibilities and privileges) in order to
seek moksa (final liberation). Worldly involvements are believed to
increase one's activities and distractions and hence militate against
attainment of a life of controlled equilibrium or devotional ecstasy that
is the goal of the spiritual techniques.
Buddhism began as a celibate order in India dedicated to the attainment of
enlightenment through the control of the passions and the withdrawal of
the senses from attachment to external objects. As Buddhism became a world
religion, certain variations arose: in Southeast Asia, most young men
spent only a year in the order; in Tibet, Tantric monks were married; in
Japan, the large Jodo Shinshu denomination dispensed with the celibacy
ideal altogether.
Chinese Taoism has monastics and independent celibate adepts. Originally
the tradition was probably derived from shamanism, but now the Taoist
monasticism and priesthood is modelled on the Buddhist. Shinto in Japan
has no monks or celibate priesthood; it has embraced shamanesses "married"
to the shrine god and celibate priestesses in major shrines, especially in
premodern times.
Celibacy in the religions of the West.
Celibacy was not part of the original practices of Islam. Islamic celibacy
was a matter of personal spiritual advancement or enthusiasm rather than
of sacerdotal purity or institutional control, and most of the famous
saints were married. In various places, bands of Sufi mystics, such as the
dervishes, developed out of a need for rigorous training or practice.
Celibacy was exceptional even among members of these mystical orders,
however.
Celibacy has had little part in normative Judaism. There were, however,
prescribed periods of sexual abstinence in connection with rituals and
sacrifices, and while engaging in holy wars. In post-Old Testament times,
some members of the Essene sect rejected marriage.
Celibacy first appears in Christianity out of apocalyptic expectations. It
was believed among the original Christians that the present age was ending
and that the Kingdom of God was at hand, and that in the new age there
would be no marriage, since all would be like angels. Some of the
followers of Jesus gave up family life in order to devote themselves to
proclaiming the Kingdom. St. Paul commended celibacy but insisted that he,
like the other Apostles, had the right to be married if he so desired.
In the subapostolic period (late 1st and early 2nd centuries) some took
the extreme view that all Christians should renounce marriage. Middle
positions were developed to defend marriage in opposition to views that
the flesh and all matter were evil and to defend celibacy in opposition to
the widespread sexual license and chaos of the times. Many writers held
that marriage was good, but that celibacy was better.
The pre-Christian idea that sexual activity was particularly wrong for
those who officiated at the altar was assimilated by Christians, and it
became common for ordained men to give up sexual relations with their
wives. The regional Council of Elvira in Spain (c. AD 306) decreed that
all priests and bishops, married or not, should abstain from sexual
relations. On the other hand, the ecumenical Council of Nicaea (ad 325)
declined to make such a prohibition.
The position of the Eastern churches was made clear by the decrees of the
Quinisext Council in 692: bishops must be celibate, but ordained priests,
deacons, and subdeacons could continue already-established marriages.
The social chaos caused by the breakup of the Roman Empire had the effect
of extending the practice of celibacy among the laity. Lay persons fleeing
the cities to live as hermits or to form monastic communities sought
safety as well as purity.
In the 10th and 11th centuries a crisis in the practice of clerical
celibacy resulted from the decline of the Carolingian Empire and the Norse
(Viking) invasions. Churches were destroyed, church lands secularized, and
many priests married or lived in concubinage. Not only the practice but
also the principles of clerical celibacy were challenged.
The first and second Lateran Councils (1123 and 1139) put an end to the
legality of theoretically continent clerical marriages. They declared
priestly orders an impediment to valid marriage and vice versa. This is
still the official position of the Roman Catholic Church, although
occasionally exceptions are made.
The churches of the Reformation (Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and others)
discontinued the requirement of clerical celibacy. Lay celibacy was also
discontinued, but about 1845 monastic orders began to reappear in the
Church of England. About the time of World War II, small Protestant
monastic groups were founded on the continent of Europe.
In connection with the second Vatican Council (1962-65) clerical celibacy
once again became a cause of ferment in the Roman Church. The council
permitted a married diaconate. After the council, the number of priests
seeking to leave the priesthood and marry vastly increased. A substantial
number of European and American Catholics began to urge that celibacy be
made optional for priests.
Pope Paul VI, however, issued an encyclical, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (June
23, 1967), reaffirming the traditional law on celibacy. The pope returns
to the New Testament texts: for the sake of Christ and the coming Kingdom
of Heaven, the priest must be totally available and free of domestic
responsibilities; he must witness by his way of life to the transcendent
reality that fills and grips him.
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