Danielle Treweek

Foreword by Kutter Callaway

The Meaning of Singleness

Retrieving an Eschatological Vision for the Contemporary Church

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

©2023 by Danielle Elizabeth Treweek

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®. For more information, visit intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition.

Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.

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Cover design and image composite: David Fassett

ISBN 978-1-5140-0486-9 (digital)

ISBN 978-1-5140-0485-2 (print)

To the Reverend Dr. Andrew Cameron.

In God’s good timing, the time finally came.

Thank you for speeding it along.

To my single brothers and sisters in Christ,

those who stand alongside me

on the threshold of eternity:

Thank you for all that you continue to teach me.

This book is dedicated to you.

May God use it to further secure your undivided

devotion to Christ, who is the true and

glorious meaning of all things.

Contents

Foreword by Kutter Callaway

Preface

Introduction: Setting the Scene

Part One: The Context of Singleness

1 Singleness in Society

2 Singleness in the Church

Part Two: The Diagnosis of Singleness

3 The Character of Christian Singleness

4 The Value and Belonging of Christian Singleness

Part Three: The Retrieval of Singleness

5 Retrieving Singleness in Church History

6 Retrieving Singleness in Biblical Exegesis

7 Retrieving Singleness in Christian Theology

Part Four: The Meaning of Singleness

8 Telling the Time

9 Making the Meaning

10 Continuing the Conversation

Bibliography

General Index

Scripture Index

Foreword

Kutter Callaway

I first came to know Dr. Treweek as many people come to know each other in the late-modern world: through the internet. In fact, at the time of this writing, we have still yet to meet each other in the flesh, which will hopefully not remain the case for too much longer. But I bring up this seemingly innocuous tidbit of relational information to underscore one of the many contemporary realities that make this book both timely and urgent.

On the one hand, it is only because of emerging digital technologies that Dani and I have been able to connect, learn from each other’s scholarship, and even collaborate in ministry together (for example, the Single Minded Ministry conference that takes place in Sydney but is streamed around the globe). On the other hand, to borrow a phrase from media theorist Sherry Turkle, it is also because of our digitally mediated ...