chastity

n.

1. The condition or quality of being pure or chaste.
2. 1. Virginity.
   2. Virtuous character.
   3. Celibacy.

[Middle English chastite, from Old French chastete, from Latin castitās, from castus, pure. See chaste.]

A confusion of the terms ‘chastity’ and ‘celibacy’ has long existed. ‘Chastity’ — deriving from the Latin ‘castitas’, meaning ‘cleanliness’ or ‘purity’ — does not necessarily mean the renunciation of all sexual relations, but rather the temperate sexual behaviour of legitimately married spouses, for the purpose of procreation, or the sexual continence of the unmarried. The Greek word for chastity, sophrosyne, means moderation, which in the ancient Greek world was the chief philosophical virtue. This entailed proper self-mastery for men, and the virtue appropriate to a devoted and child-bearing (or potentially child-bearing) wife. For both men and women this meant the avoidance of fornication rather than the avoidance of sex altogether.

The early Church saw a debate between the proponents of chastity and celibacy. Paul questioned chastity in favour of celibacy in the first century, as I Corinthians: 7 indicates, for example. This passage was (and has continued to be) variously interpreted. Those in favour of celibacy highlighted Paul's comment that he wished all were like him — that is, celibate — and his urging of those unmarried or widowed to remain so, while those favouring chaste marriage have emphasized Paul's words that it is better to marry than to burn if one cannot practise self-control. A different perspective is seen in 1 Timothy: 3, where a bishop (not, in this period, in charge of anything beyond a local church) is described as a person who must be above reproach, married only once, temperate and sensible, and keeping his children submissive: that is, he must embody the qualities of a chaste, married householder. In the letter to Titus, an elder is described, similarly, as one who must have been married only once, who must be blameless and not rebellious, and whose children are believers.

In the second century, many writers were still advocating chaste marriage. For Clement of Alexandria sexual intercourse should be undertaken in marriage in service of God and for the begetting of children. A well-ordered sexuality was not in itself a problem: sexual relations needed to be ordered just as the rest of Christian life had to be ordered. He was therefore concerned about the continence of unmarried men. He saw marriage and celibacy as equal callings, each having its own and different forms of service and ministry to God. In marriage this entailed the care of one's wife and children (Clement was writing to male householders like himself). The particular readers he had in mind were, perhaps, the members of his own congregation in Alexandria who might be told by the ascetic and celibate encratites who lived in the area that they had accommodated too much to the world in marrying. Clement and others who wrote along these lines were, indeed, trying to accommodate Christian principles within the Roman and Greek household structure.

Tertullian, also in the second century, wrote on the importance of monogamy, the bond between one man and woman, believing marriage to be the lot of most Christians, for virginity might be splendid and ideal, but it was not for most people. Those who, at this time, privileged celibacy over marriage were sometimes accused of extremism, such as the prophet Montanus, who was said to allow the annulment of marriage.

By the fourth century, however, almost no one was writing of celibacy and marriage as equal Christian callings. Celibacy was seen as decidedly superior. Many people, from Ambrose to Jerome to Gregory of Nyssa, wrote on the importance of virginity. Only the monk Jovinian denied that virginity was a higher state than marriage, and only Augustine — who himself advocated virginity — wrote anything significant in support of chaste marriage, in his The Good of Marriage (c.401), in which he outlined the three goods of marriage: offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond.

Because chastity in the sense of the continence of the unmarried triumphed (until the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation) over the chastity of temperate sexual behaviour in marriage, the term chastity essentially came to mean celibacy, though historians debate exactly when this happened. It had happened generally by the sixth century, though as early as the fourth century, ‘castitas’ was used in some texts to mean continence rather than non-fornicatory marriage.

— Jane Shaw

See also asceticism; celibacy; religion and the body.

noun

The condition of being chaste: decency, innocence, modesty, purity, virginity, virtue, virtuousness. See good/bad, restraint/unrestraint, sex/asexual.

n

Definition: celibacy, purity
Antonyms: dirtiness, fornication

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Abstention from illicit sexual activity (in contrast to Virginity, which is abstention from all sexual intercourse). The Bible warned the Israelites against defiling themselves and their land in the manner "that the nations which I am casting out before you defiled themselves" (Lev. 18:24). Illicit sexual activity such as Adultery, Incest, sodomy and bestiality--- called "the practices of the land of Egypt"---is considered "abhorrent" to God. By refraining from such activity, the Israelites achieve a state of holiness. Maimonides wrote: "No prohibition in all the Torah is as difficult to keep as that of forbidden unions and illicit sexual relations" (Yad, Issuré Bi'ah 22:18). Because Joseph resisted seduction by Potiphar's wife (Gen. 39:9), he is called Joseph the righteous. Adultery is one of the three cardinal sins, along with Murder and Idolatry, for which death, viz. martyrdom, is preferable.

Marriage is the ideal relationship between man and woman. Even in marriage, chastity is required during the Niddah period (separation during menstruation and for a time thereafter). An unmarried woman who has not ritually immersed herself since her last period is also considered a niddah. Sexual relations and physical contact are prohibited with her, just as they are with one's wife during this time. One difference at all times is that one may be alone with one's wife, but not with an unmarried woman. The sages, aware of the formidable temptations in the attraction between men and women, explained as due to the power of the yetzer ha-ra, the evil inclination, recommended early marriage (Kid. 29b), diverting unchaste thoughts through Torah study (Kid. 30b), and avoidance of too much conversation with women (Avot 1:5).

Chastity refers to avoiding illicit sex, not sex per le. Permitted sex is intrinsically good, a Mitsvah, a natural drive inherent in the individual's biological constitution. As such, it is not to be repressed as in certain other cultures but merely channeled. A husband may not deny sexual relations to his wife, nor she to him, out of anger or ascetic inclinations, for this is grounds for divorce (see Moredet). Modesty and constraint govern the marital relationship, which attains a state of holiness through the practice of chastity.

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Either complete abstinence from sexual activity, especially in females, or the virtuous exercise of it to just the right extent, for instance in the Catholic natural law tradition, solely in marriage, and solely in order to produce children.

IN BRIEF: The quality or state of being morally pure.

Many religions require chastity of their members.

Quotes:

"Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc." - Gilbert K. Chesterton

"Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life." - Mary Baker Eddy

"It is fatally easy for Western folk, who have discarded chastity as a value for themselves, to suppose that it can have no value for anyone else. At the same time as Californians try to re-invent celibacy, by which they seem to mean perverse restraint, the rest of us call societies which place a high value on chastity backward." - Germaine Greer

"A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet." - Eric Hoffer

"There are few virtuous women who are not bored with their trade." - Francois De La Rochefoucauld

See more famous quotes about Chastity

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kyskhed

idioms:

• chastity belt    kyskhedsbælte

Nederlands (Dutch)
kuisheid, seksuele onthouding, maagdelijkheid, eenvoud

Français (French)
n. - chasteté

idioms:

• chastity belt    ceinture de chasteté

Deutsch (German)
n. - Anstand, Keuschheit

idioms:

• chastity belt    Keuschheitsgürtel

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αγνότητα, παρθενία, παρθενικότητα
attrib. - της αγνότητας

idioms:

• chastity belt    ζώνη αγνότητας

Italiano (Italian)
decenza, castità

idioms:

• chastity belt    cintura di castità

Português (Portuguese)
n. - castidade (f), singeleza (f)

idioms:

• chastity belt    cinto (m) de castidade

Русский (Russian)
строгость, целомудрие

idioms:

• chastity belt    пояс целомудрия

Español (Spanish)
n. - pudor, castidad

idioms:

• chastity belt    cinturón de castidad

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kyskhet
attr. - kyskhets-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
纯洁, 贞操

idioms:

• chastity belt    贞操带

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 純潔, 貞操

idioms:

• chastity belt    貞操帶

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 정숙, 순결, 간소

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 純潔, 貞節, 簡素さ, 上品さ

idioms:

• chastity belt    貞操帯

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عفاف, عفه, طهارة (صفه)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צניעות, טוהר, פרישות, פשטות‬

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