Theology of Priestly Celibacy

S. L. Jaki

     Christian theology is a reasoned discourse about what God revealed in
Christ. Otherwise theology turns into as device to accommodate man as being who, not having been crushed by an original Fall, does not stand in need to be redeemed. Redemption was the work of Christ's priesthood, based on his theandric fullness, of which his celibacy was an integral part.
     Christian priesthood sprang forth from Christ's eternal priesthood. It is
in this light that this book deals with the christological and apostolic origins of priestly celibacy and with the unrelenting adherence to it by those who held high that fullness with no failure whatsoever.
     This age of ours, greatly suffering from its obsession with sex, needs
celibate priests fully conscious of theological truths as greatly different from and far superior to fashionable trends in philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Priestly celibacy is not a negotiable option but a theological cogency. This is borne out even by the Eastern Orthodox practice and predicament.
     A contrast is drawn between the views which truly great figures of the
new theology, such as Moehler, Scheeben, and Newman, held on priestly celibacy and views embodied in some latter-day theological rhetoric on it.
     The book concludes on the theme that inasmuch as the priest, in likeness of Christ, is an altar, he is also Christ's witness. What the priest witnesses must therefore have truth for its principal object. In the priest's celibacy this witness of his reaches its existential fullness.