Erik Varden, Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses (Bloomsbury, 2023)
This book is different to many other books reviewed here at Living Out. It is not written by an evangelical author – Erik Varden is a Roman Catholic monk and bishop. It is not published by a Christian publishing house – Bloomsbury is a secular publisher (most famous for publishing the Harry Potter series). It is very different in style and content to most books written by evangelicals – interacting not just with Scripture but music, art, poetry and novels (both ancient and modern).
I can think of few books that have made me think more or that have left me longing to have a chance to sit down and discuss its contents with the author.
As a result, this book demands a different style of review: one that doesn’t simply attempt to summarise (partly because it resists that) but instead seeks to entice you to read and ponder its contents for yourself. I can think of few books that have made me think more or that have left me longing to have a chance to sit down and discuss its contents with the author (or, indeed, anyone else).
Its subject is a much-misunderstood, negatively regarded virtue: chastity. Varden clarifies that he is not just talking about celibacy and/or sexual repression:
‘...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’ (p.17).
Chastity is a life-giving virtue required of all Christians, and is best enjoyed by us all if we understand what our sexualities are there for:
‘The fire of erotic impulse, intrinsic to human nature, can brighten and warm our lives as a source of gladness and fruitfulness. It can also erupt in conflagrations of deadly passion. In a Christian optic, eros is an impulse towards the divine, but is not itself divine. It has its part to play in ordering human existence towards its true goal, the knowledge and love of God. It must not be mistaken for the goal’ (p.160).
Encouragingly, here’s someone from the Roman Catholic tradition making the same points about sexuality that we make here at Living Out: it is a temporary sign that point us forward to a lasting reality. Varden, like us, is not advocating sexual repression but instead enabling us to see where our sexual feelings are meant to lead us – to an increasing desire to be united to God himself.
The two quotes above bookend Varden’s reflections. In between, he ponders our humanity, our bodies, beauty, gender, sin, abuse, marriage, temptation – there is so much to which I want to return to reflect on further myself. Some might find him a little highbrow in the operas or writings or paintings he interacts with, but I enjoyed reading a Christian author able to illustrate his points from both past and contemporary cultures. Towards the end I wanted more from the Desert Fathers on resisting temptation, but perhaps I should just start reading them for myself.
To encourage you to read Varden’s book for yourself, here are two more quotes that got me thinking. The first is helpful in apologetics, the second in pastorally connecting the gospel into the lives of those struggling with the biblical binary on gender.
In any discussions on the nature of true freedom, these words of Varden could be usefully deployed:
‘Ordinarily we think of freedom as scope to do what we feel like. We think in terms of freedom from, not of freedom unto. In Christian terms, freedom is about enabling commitment. The Biblical view of human nature, evidenced in Christ, regards the human being as essentially relational, oblative and covenantal. On this account, unhindered pursuit of momentary inclinations is not freedom. It is enslavement to whim, which, empirically speaking, rarely produces lasting happiness. Sensational thrills can come of it, true, but they are not much of a foundation on which to construct a life’ (p.113).
True freedom, even happiness, is found in a life focused on self-giving, committed relationships. This is a message our contemporary world needs to hear – in contrast to its false promise of freedom through sexual self-satisfaction.
Similar challenge and comfort could be found in reflecting on these words with someone struggling to live happily within gender binaries:
‘There is an eschatological thrust in the desire to overcome binary oppositions. Christ came to make the two one (cf. Ephesians 2.14, Galatians 3.28). Trouble ensues when human beings try to accomplish overcoming unaided. Christianity entertains hope of transcending human dichotomies not through pendular alterations, but through a transfiguration in love that realizes our thirst for infinity through graced communion with Infinite Being’ (p.124).
There is a lot to be helpfully explored and correctly understood in just this one paragraph. Our hope to, someday soon, feel at one with ourselves should not be placed in changes we can make to our bodies, but in the change that will come when our body is fully united to him.
Much more of this book could be quoted, but if any of the above entices you, read it for yourself. And if you bump into me anytime soon, I would love to sit down and discuss its contents with you.
