Heid presents a penetrating and wide-ranging study of the historical data from the early Church on the topics of celibacy and clerical continence. He gives a brief review of recent literature, and then begins his study with the New Testament and follows it all the way to Justinian and the Council in Trullo in 690 in the East and the fifth century popes in the West. He thoroughly examines the writings of the Bible, the early church councils, saints and theologians like Jerome, Augustine, Clement, Tertullian, John Chrystostom, Cyril and Gregory Nazianzen. He has gathered formidable data with conclusive arguments regarding obligatory continence in the early Church.

Heid presents a penetrating and wide-ranging study of the historical data from the early Church on the topics of celibacy and clerical continence. He gives a brief review of recent literature, and then begins his study with the New Testament and follows it all the way to Justinian and the Council in Trullo in 690 in the East and the fifth century popes in the West. He thoroughly examines the writings of the Bible, the early church councils, saints and theologians like Jerome, Augustine, Clement, Tertullian, John Chrystostom, Cyril and Gregory Nazianzen. He has gathered formidable data with conclusive arguments regarding obligatory continence in the early Church.

A study of the 'heretic' Jovinian and the Jovinianist controversy, this work examines early Christian views on marriage and celibacy in the first three centuries and the development of an anti-heretical tradition. It provides an analysis of the responses of Jovinian's main opponents.

"Fr Christian Cochini has made a thorough examination, based on years of extensive research, of the topic of clerical celibacy in the first seven centuries of the Church's history. ...." [from back cover]

The insistence on clerical celibacy was established in much of the Western Church beginning in the Fourth Century. It expanded slowly and unevenly throughout Late Antiquity and the early middle ages and at the Second Lateran Council in 1139 became Church Law. This Law of Celibacy decreed that Holy Orders were a absolute impediment to any in the higher clerical orders attempting to contract marriage. Any such marriage was automatically null and void in the eyes of the Church.

In our world today, many single and celibate people find themselyes isolated on all sides. In the secular culture with its glorification obsexual behavior, celibacy is seen as restrictive, a denial of one's deepest nature. In religious circles, for anyone but Roman Catholie priests, being single is often seen as a temporary and unfortunate stage in life something to be stoically endured until marriage. But in fact millions of people in the pews of Profestant Episcopal and Catholic churches every week are living a single life, and many are happy to stay that way. Whether widowed, never married, or divorced, many believers understand their single lives not as a passing moment but as a celebratory way of life rich in its own benefits and rewards. In this book Annemarie Kidder offers the theological basis for what so many Christians experience in their own lives. By examining be Hebrew and Christian scriptures early church writings from the East and West and later commentators, she develops a theology of the single life applicable to both women and men. Protestan, Episcopal, and Catholic. This book is a must-read for all single Christians, both those who feel called to remain single and those who for whatever reason find themselves single for long periods of time. Book jacket.

Buschart and Eilers identify six critical areas—Scripture, theology, worship, spirituality, mission and culture—where contemporary Christians are retrieving aspects of our Christian past for life and thought today. The result is a fascinating tour and wise reflection on how Christians might receive, employ and transmit the treasures of their past.