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Though some churches may flinch from ordaining a celibate vow, we might still use the word celibacy to rightly honor and rightly name the countercultural life to which singles are called. In doing so, we encourage more than just abstinence from sex. We bless the single vocation. We recall the church's history and remember our true family. We christen singles as called-out ones, with familial gifts that amplify the church and her outward-looking mission.

A return to a culture that welcomes celibacy might happen simply through a rise in the number of Christian singles who display a winsome picture of celibacy's communal appeal. Anyone who has read Donald Miller's spiritual memoir Blue Like Jazz will hear in his narrative of pubs and coffeehouses, college campuses and Volkswagen vans the story of a celibate man who, like Francis of Assisi, is barefoot and mobile to meet the face of Jesus in everyone.

Joining Donald Miller are others like Shane Claiborne, the young man whose Simple Way community in Philadelphia has joined married couples and singles in a community committed to poverty, chastity, and obedience—a pattern first modeled by the early church and later ordered by Saint Benedict.

Singleness is no social anomaly; celibacy shouldn't seem that way to us, either. Postmodern life, Mother Teresa, and the new monastic movement have brought the holy challenge of celibacy before the church.

The church's opportunity in this is simply to name what it sees: an explosion in the number of young adults who are highly educated, creative, entrepreneurial, spiritually intuitive, and apt to invest in a calling that has some roots—like the monastics who illuminated the Book of Kells and effectively saved the transmitted text of Scripture. Or the early church fathers like Athanasius and church mothers like Macrina, theologians like Aquinas, seers like Teresa of Avila, and sages like the desert monastic Synclectica.

"Single" does not do justice to the vital intelligence that spurred these saints to wed their affection to the forward-moving family of the church. "Celibate," on the other hand, is a word that tells me they knew exactly what they were doing. Theirs was a way of life purposely chosen with their community wholly in mind.

We are a community of interpreters, continually mirroring for one another our role in the story of God's kingdom. In restoring the language of celibacy to the lexicon of the church, we'll also restore a tradition that has historically produced much life. More importantly, we'll restore a Christological story of family, in which celibacy is a viable choice, a worthy commitment, and a sacred relationship.

Marcy Hintz is a member of Church of the Resurrection in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and a recent graduate of the Christian Formation & Ministry Program at Wheaton College Graduate School.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Earlier Christianity Today articles on similar topics include:

Practicing Chastity | A lifelong spiritual discipline for singles and marrieds. Lauren F. Winner reviews Dawn Eden's The Thrill of the Chaste. (Mar. 15, 2007)

Sex in the Body of Christ | Chastity is a spiritual discipline for the whole church. (May 13, 2005)

30 and Single? It's Your Own Fault | There are more unmarried people in our congregations than ever, and some say that's just sinful. (June 21, 2006)

Solitary Refinement | Evangelical assumptions about singleness still need rethinking (June 11, 2001)

Two Cheers for Celibacy | People who expect a sudden reversal of the century long clerical requirement show an inadequate understanding of why the Vatican is committed to this policy. A Christianity Today editorial (June 10, 2002)

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September 2008, Vol. 52, No. 9