Is Singleness Among the Highest Vocations of the Faith? - Hope 103.2

Is Singleness Among the Highest Vocations of the Faith?

Is Christian singleness a burden to be endured or a God-ordained vocation? Might singleness give a glimpse of God's heavenly promises?

By Joni BoydWednesday 9 Oct 2024She Wasn't Born YesterdayPodcastsReading Time: 2 minutes

Is Christian singleness a burden to be endured or a God-ordained vocation?
Key points
  • “Particularly [in] the church, [singleness] kind of signals a failure to launch.”
  • Christian singleness is among the highest vocations of the faith.
  • Listen to the full conversation in the player above, on the Hope 103.2 app and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

If you’ve been asking these questions, then this episode of She Wasn’t Born Yesterday is for you!

Dr Amelia and Janet sat down with Danielle (Dani) Treweek (PhD, St Mark’s National Theological Centre and Charles Sturt University), founding director of the Single Minded Ministry and an adjunct teacher at Moore Theological College, Sydney to chat about this important topic.

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

Why, you may be asking, is Dani so passionate about being single as a Christian?

“I’m not only I’m a doctor of singleness, I’m a reverend doctor of singleness,” she said.

“Well, I’m ordained as a deacon in the Anglican diocese of Sydney, which is unrelated to my doctoral work.

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The Meaning of Singleness, by Dani Treweek promotional image

“But, yes, I’m a doctor of philosophy, but 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, explained that despite enjoying celebrating with friends who were “going out on dates, finding a boyfriend, getting engaged, getting married, getting [to] have children… particularly [in] the church, that kind of signals a failure to launch.”

Christian singleness is among the highest vocations of the faith.

Dani’s book The Meaning of Singleness offers biblical, historical, cultural, and theological reflections to retrieve a theology of singleness for the church today.

Drawing upon both ancient and contemporary theologians, including Augustine, Ælfric of Eynsham, John Paul II, and Stanley Hauerwas, she contends not only that singleness has served an important role throughout the church’s history, but that single Christians present the church with a foretaste of the eschatological reality that awaits all of God’s people.

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

Listen to the full conversation in the player above, on the Hope 103.2 app and wherever you get your podcasts.


Article supplied with thanks to Joni Boyd. Joni is the Digital Media Coordinator at Hope 103.2. She is passionate about the power of stories shared, to transform lives.

Feature image: Photo by CanvaPro