CHASTITY DEFINED

'...chastity is not a denial of sex. It is an orientation of sexuality, of the whole vital instinct, towards a desired finality. It is a function of the wholeness sought and healing found.'

Erik Varden, Chastity: Reconciliation of the senses, p.17.

CHASTITY IS NOT REPRESSION

'When an adolescent or an adult is engaged in resisting a conscious desire, he is not dealing with a repression nor is he in the least danger of creating a repression. On the contrary, those who are seriously attempting chastity are more conscious, and soon know a great deal more about their sexuality than anyone else. They come to know their desires as Wellington knew Napoleon, or as Sherlock Holmes knew Moriarty; as a rat-catcher knows rats or a plumber knows about leaky pipes. Virtue - even attempted virtue - brings light; indulgence brings fog.'

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.102.

PERSEVERANCE IN GODLINESS

'After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in the worst, for our failures are forgiven. The fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection.'

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.101.

CHASTITY DEFINED

'Chastity is not the same as virginity or celibacy. Within Christianity, it is something both married and single people are called to. The person who is raped is not guilty of being unchaste. On the other hand, the consumer of pornography is. Chastity, most simply, is fidelity.' 

Karen Swallow Prior, On Reading Well, p.161. 

THE THREAT OF CHASTITY

'Those who are chaste by conviction are in fact a threat to all who market sex as something which we must bow before. For they are often living testimonies to the fact that human intimacy is not dependent on sexual intercourse for its meaning and power. They also know the truth that we are much more in control of the way we relate to others than our culture is prepared to acknowledge. And in this they have the witness of history.' 

Elaine Storkey, The Search for Intimacy, p.206. 

CHASTITY IS THE ROUTE TO INTIMACY

'For the truth about intimacy is one which is learned through chastity and not promiscuity.' 

Elaine Storkey, The Search for Intimacy, p.204. 

CHASTITY

'...the reflective, faithful celibate and the reflective, faithful married person may have more in common - by way of prayerful surrendering of inevitably thwarted desire to God - than the unreflective or faithless celibate, or the carelessly happy, or indeed unhappily careless, married person.' 

Sarah Coakley, The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender and the Quest for God, p.39. 

CHASTITY

'...chastity is culturally interpreted as an impediment or repression of sexuality. In fact, chastity promotes and nourishes healthy behavior for it combats our tendencies to be selfish, exploitative, and manipulative.

Consider chastity in its basic sense as respectful and unconditional concern.' 

William F Kraft, Whole & Holy Sexuality: How to Find Human and Spiritual Integrity as a Sexual Person, p.55. 

CHASTITY

'Chastity demands personal and total commitment. It requires a brave, patient and tenacious decision to go against the social and intellectual tide, to face the double burden of an loneliness that having no partner implies. It must be embraced, not simply tolerated. It entails the proactive - and in our emotionally starving age - prophetic attempt to refound community. Where there are difficulties in finding love and affection, they can be addressed. Chastity is not itself the issue. Chastity clarifies what the real issues are, both in self and society.' 

Jenny Taylor, A Wild Constraint, p.156. 

CHASTITY

'To be chaste is to embrace the fullness of our creativity and our Christian discipleship, and to refocus them. What is essential is a changed perception of oneself and one's meaning - and for that there is no alternative to a daily reckoning with oneself. Chastity is a form of poverty that is foundational to spiritual growth. It is an aridity that cleanses the doors of perception and helps one begin to see God and his purposes.' 

Jenny Taylor, A Wild Constraint, p.145. 

CHASTITY

'Chastity properly understood is an attitude that anticipates grace; that accepts there is a time and a place for all things. Learning how to wait well is the secret of maturity and satisfaction, even if it's for a lifetime.' 

Jenny Taylor, Wild Constraint: The Case for Chastity, p.4.