Is Singleness Among the Highest Vocations of the Faith?

By: Joni Boyd

Is Christian singleness a burden to be endured or a God-ordained vocation?

Might singleness here and now give the church a glimpse of God’s heavenly promises?

If you’ve been asking these questions, you’ll be encouraged by the thoughts of Danielle Treweek. With a PhD from St Mark’s National Theological Centre and Charles Sturt University, Dani is the founding director of the Single Minded Ministry and an adjunct teacher at Moore Theological College, Sydney.

She chatted to us about the important topic of singleness, which was the focus of her doctorate.

“Particularly [in] the church, [singleness] kind of signals a failure to launch.”

“I’m a reverend doctor of singleness,” she joked. “Well, I’m ordained as a deacon in the Anglican diocese of Sydney, which is unrelated to my doctoral work. But, yes, I’m a doctor of philosophy. I do kind of joke that it was never my lifelong dream to become a doctor of singleness, but here I am!”

Dani, who is single herself, explained that despite enjoying celebrating with friends who were “going out on dates, finding a boyfriend, getting engaged, getting married, getting [to] have children”, church culture doesn’t always leave singles feeling encouraged.

“Particularly [in] the church, that kind of signals a failure to launch,” she said.

Dani says Christian singleness is among the highest vocations of the faith.

Her book The Meaning of Singleness offers biblical, historical, cultural, and theological reflections to retrieve a theology of singleness for the church today. It draws upon both ancient and contemporary theologians, including Augustine, Ælfric of Eynsham, John Paul II, and Stanley Hauerwas.

Dani argues that singleness has served an important role throughout the church’s history, and that single Christians present the church with a foretaste of what’s to come in heaven.

Far from being a burden, she says, Christian singleness is among the highest vocations of the faith.

Article supplied with thanks to Hope Media.

Feature image: Photo by Julia Caesar on Unsplash

About the Author: Joni Boyd is a writer, based in the Hawkesbury Region of NSW. She is passionate about the power of stories shared, to transform lives.